Let's Hear it for the Monsters NOT!
by Luna del Cielo
Summary: Buffy Summers gets called to St. Louis. Ms. B gets in the way. Someone gets their ass kicked. Clue: It’s not Buffy.
1. Bangers & Mash

_**Story: Let's Hear it for the Monsters… NOT!**_

_**Buffy Summers gets called to St. Louis. High & Mighty Anita Blake gets in the way. Someone gets their ass kicked. Clue: It's not Buffy.**_

_**Chapter One: Bangers & Mash**_

_**Summary:**_

_Buffy Summers is called to St. Louis, MO to go after a rogue vampire. She encounters Anita Blake and her harem of beautiful men. Buffy is at her usual level of sarcastic charm and Anita is at her usual level of Mightier Than Thou charm. Buffy confronts Anita for being a monster and Anita (surprise) doesn't take it that well. *Meow* Catfight at the Circus of the Damned!_

_**Notes:**_

**Timeline:** 5 years after Buffy series finale and after the Anita Blake latest novel 'Skin Trade.' In Anita's world 5 years have passed since vampires were made legal and I know that doesn't match up with Skin Trade at all but I'm making it work this way so please ignore inconsistencies.

**The Bad Guys:** The Vampires, Lycanthropes, Animators, Witches, etc of Anita's world are the ones in this story and the ones that Buffy and the Gang have always known (hence this no soul business). However, the Demons of my story are the demons of Buffy and not the super evil ones of Anita's world.

**Why am I writing this?** I have never before had the desire to do an Anita fic and have never had a chance to read one on this site. But Anita pisses me off. I keep reading the books since I loved the early ones but I'm tired of that girl's shit and think she needs her ass kicked. Now, I as a real human being cannot kick the ass of a fictional character… But I can make Buffy beat her up in my story! Mwahahahaha! I promise, fun times ahead :D

_**Your feedback is always greatly welcomed and strongly encouraged :) I'm debating on how much of this story to create so if I see folks like the ideas I'll keep them coming. Otherwise, I may just kill Anita Blake in the first couple chapters and send Buffy back to Scotland with a harem of pretties.**_

**Disclaimer:** Buffy Summers and the Slayer world are all the creations of the Evil Genius that is Joss Whedon. He owns them, as does 20th Century Fox. Anita Blake and her world of legalized baddies was created by Laurell K. Hamilton and she owns all of them. I only own my random OCs and wacky thoughts.

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Rain pounded over the roof of the Scottish castle that was now Watcher Council HQ. Like all days in this *_bloody_* country, it was bloody raining again. How Giles could grow up in this dank, dark place Buffy would never understand. Glancing down at her arm she sighed; her wonderful California tan was a thing of the past. Oh well, no use worrying about something so trivial when there are weightier matters at hand.

God, did she really just think that? Damn, being in charge of an army of Slayers is actually turning her into a responsible adult. '_Gag me_,' she thought. '_Not to mention, the last time I've been able to go shopping was at *least* two months ago'_.

But it's been five years that she has led the roughly four hundred slayers and she was twenty-seven years old. No more time to be a kid… Not that she had much time to begin with.

"Yo B, why the long face?" Buffy didn't have to raise her head from her comfortable position in the foyer love seat to know Faith was nearby. To be honest, it wasn't even her voice that identified her but that tell-tale click of her spiked heels on the hardwood floor.

"It's raining," she sighed.

"Girl, it's always raining. We're stuck in our own version of hell here, if hell consisted of stiff upper-lip accents, tweed coats, and bangers and mash."

"Hmm," Buffy mused. "When I walked by your bedroom last night it sure sounded like you were enjoying your own dish of 'bangers'," she cracked with a smile.

Faith let out a deep chuckle and threw Buffy a kiss. "Mmm, I tell you. I think I can confidently say that if Robin Wood was not such a fine chef of… bangers," she cackled, "there's no way we'd still be together after five years."

Buffy gave her a piercing look and raised her eyebrow. "Really? Gee, and I thought you were still together because you are in love," she said in a drippy voice.

That earned Buffy a smirk and crossed arms, but no words of comeback. Score one for the Buffster.

"So," started Buffy. "Did you see the news?"

"Buff," she drawled. "You know that's your job. I'm the brawn and you're the brains."

"Whatever," Buffy rolled her eyes. Faith liked to play dumb but in reality Buffy considered her one of the brightest people she knew. Yeah, they had a lot of history together. A lot of bad history in the beginning but their relationship was much better now. No matter what, they were sisters in the Slayerhood. Of course, being sisters it was also common to want to strangle the other at times.

"They said Las Vegas caught that serial killer vamp that was killing strippers."

"Fuck. For real?"

"Yeah," Buffy restated. "Apparently reports say he was taken out by some weretigers and," Buffy motioned quotation marks with her hands, "the Executioner."

Faith shook her head in annoyance. "Screw that. If that chick, or anyone else who wants to be a federal marshal to kill vampires, they should just know to stay out of our business."

"Hard to do that when we're on the run, remember?"

Faith's jaw tightened and her doe eyes blazed with fire. "Stupid fucking vampires just *_had_* to go legal on us. Five years ago- bam! Hundreds of slayers are popping up. Suddenly the Vampire Council realizes they are screwed and that no amount of creepy mind powers can save them from our army. Presto! They avert all of our plans by 'coming out of the coffin', feigning personhood, and are made legal in the U.S. Then all of a sudden *_we_* are the bad guys, along with Humans First, because we kill vampires and are suddenly proclaimed 'terrorists'." Her voice shook with pent-up anger; the kind of anger that ate away at your body because there was nothing you could do to change the situation. Except kill more vampires, of course.

Her eyes flashed as she took in the memories of the previous years, but Buffy sat serenely on her cushion. In her time Buffy had met some vamps and demons who weren't exactly bad guys. She got that it's wrong to hunt down innocents because the world is grayer than black and white. But for the vamps to go public had been wholly unexpected. Everyone at the Watchers Council was shocked by the bold gamble.

But the gamble had paid off. Few slayers lived in the countries where vampires were recognized as legal citizens, such as the United States, Canada (it's like they are required to love everyone or something), Australia, and the Scandinavians (seriously. Do they hate anybody?). Legislation was still going through Britain's parliament but luckily the Watchers Council held considerable sway so Buffy doubted it would succeed. In those countries slayers who were charged with killing a vampire were charged with murder, terrorism, etc- _SO_ not fair. Hence, Buffy and the gang stayed where they were wanted and, sadly, not where they were always needed.

Nodding at Faith's remarks, Buffy said, "I know Faith, I know. It is BS. I can't wait until they realize what they've done, making them legal. I mean, I don't want innocent people to get hurt but look," she gestured to the TV across the hall, "it's already happening. We need to be back there."

"Yeah, for real." Lazily grabbing the remote Faith turned on the TV and flipped to the news station.

The reporter was discussing the breaking news of the night that Buffy had explained to Faith. He was discussing the murders committed by a crazed vampire named Vittorio and the outcome of the event. "We have it on good authority that US Marshal Anita Blake was responsible for the kill, assisted by deputized weretigers, in Las Vegas. Marshal Blake has the highest number of vampire kills in the United States and is nicknamed the 'Executioner' for that purpose. Interestingly enough," here the reporter raised his eyebrow slightly, "she is also the Human Servant and Girlfriend of the St. Louis Master of the City, Jean-Claude."

The screen showed video footage of Anita Blake wearing a skimpy black dress and killer heels walking arm in arm with Jean-Claude, who had cascading ringlets of black hair covering his frilly dress shirt. Behind the two lovers were presumed bodyguards dressed in black.

Buffy's eyes widened in surprise. This was not the news footage she had seen earlier. She continued watching until the ended the video clip and then turned to a wide-eyed Faith.

"Did you see?"

Faith nodded tersely. "I saw."

Buffy stood up and straightened her crinkled shirt. "Looks like I'm going to St. Louis."

Taking a deep breath, Faith answered. "Looks like." She called after Buffy, who had started walking back to her room. "Don't forget an umbrella!"


	2. Scooby Meeting 350,338

**Let's Hear it for the Monsters… NOT!**

**Chapter 2: Scooby Meeting #350,338**

**A/N:** This chapter sets up the gang for the trip. It's a bit short but I needed set-up before the violence can begin ;D

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Buffy sat on the teacher desk of one of the slayer classrooms nestled in their Watcher Council Castle. Strong emotions were pushing her to grab her suitcases and get her ass to St. Louis but her logical side won out. Hence, Scooby meeting #350,338to watch the news clip and discuss next steps.

The clip ended and Buffy surveyed the room. Faith sat at a desk sharpening a stake; she had seen the clip already and was ready to get the meeting over with. Willow's mouth gaped open and the redhead was nervously fingering a strand of her shoulder-length hair. Reclining with his feet on a desk, Xander looked to be lost in his thoughts. Andrew's face was so lit up with joy that she bet if the electricity went out they could use his face to illuminate the room. A shocked smile was blossoming over Dawn's face and her eyes were welled up with tears. As always, Giles was cleaning his eyeglasses and squinting at the image Buffy had paused on the screen.

"Thoughts?" Buffy asked her friends.

"Was that… Was that who I think that was?" Willow stammered.

Buffy shrugged and acted like it didn't matter to her. Which was a lie, but hey, lies are okay sometimes. "I think the vide clip showed that pretty clearly, Will." She sighed and began toying with a nail that she had half broken while packing her suitcase.

"Well, now. I daresay, this is quite unexpected." Giles walked over the TV screen and squinted again. "How on earth was this managed, I wonder?"

"We *_are_* going to St. Louis, right?" asked an excited Andrew. "Clearly this calls for a rescue mission!"

Dawn frowned. "I cannot believe that we haven't heard about this beforehand. Do you think the vamps over there have done some sort of crazy spell?"

"It's quite possible," Giles mused. "At any rate, this deserves a trip out there so we can explain this."

Buffy's eyes narrowed at Xander who still appeared to be lost in his thoughts. "Xand? What's with the silent routine? You have any ideas"

It took a moment for Xander to get with it and then he shrugged at Buffy. "Yeah, I dunno Buff. This is outside the realm of my experience."

Willow cleared her throat. "Actually, this trip could work out very well. Our scrying for slayers showed that there's a new one about to arise in St. Louis. I know we have a couple tactical teams in Cleveland, Miami, and New York but they're keeping pretty busy. After speaking to Rona in Cleveland today she said it would be a while before she could spare a slayer unit to find the new potential in St. Louis. I was actually thinking of just going there myself, so it looks like this works out."

"Alright," Buffy clapped her hands. "So we'll need a team for this potential 'rescue mission' and another team to find our potential. I'll lead up the rescue and Will will lead the potential reconnaissance team. Who's in?"

Andrew interrupted by holding up his one finger and putting on his reading glasses ('_even though he has perfect eyesight_', Buffy thought dryly). "Actually, Buffy, I think I need to address a few concerns here."

Refraining from rolling her eyes, Buffy calmly responded. "Yes, Andrew?"

"As you all know I've been working with a team of other Watchers to compile information on the Vampire Council members and the Masters of the City throughout the world. The Master of St. Louis, a vamp-ire (Andrew loved to draw out that word) by the name of Jean-Claude, has been making the news for several years. Thus, I have seen fit to keep a close eye on him."

Andrew fumbled through his briefcase and triumphantly held up a file. He pulled out a color photograph of Jean-Claude and held it up. Jean-Claude was pale like all vampires but had intense dark blue eyes and lips that begged to be kissed. Ringlets of black hair cascaded over his shoulders and he was giving the camera a seductive look.

"As you can see," Andrew continued, "Jean-Claude is a highly attractive man and he is of Belle Morte's line so his very nature is to be a sensual being whose powers allow him to bring great pleasure to his lovers." Andrew looked lost in thought at that statement and then he cleared his throat.

"If we intend to head to St. Louis to confront him we must be prepared for a messy time. His girlfriend and Human Servant Anita Blake for a long time fought like a slayer. She slew many vamp-ires and is also a necromancer. But at some point our research shows a blurring of loyalties and we are not certain if Anita will help us on our mission or deter it. Our contacts in the States tell us she has gained great power at the expense of others and the overall power base of Jean-Claude includes ties to her, the werewolves, wereleopards, werelions, wererats, werehyenas, and even some weretigers. Not to mention some notorious vamp-ires. Apparently there are some dark magicks that are used by the St. Louis crew as well. Hence my dear colleagues, I advise that we move carefully on our steps in St. Louis."

Buffy blinked in surprise as Andrew sat down with a proud smile. "Wow, thanks Andrew. That was surprisingly helpful." She looked out at her friends again. "So, this has the potential of being harder than I originally thought. Who's game for going?"

"If it's a game we're playing, I know you need your MVP." Faith nodded to show her support.

"Of course I will. Besides finding the potential I guess I'll be helpful in the magicks area."

"Please let me go!" No one but Andrew could be that excited. Whether it was the person on the screen or the person in the photograph, Buffy really did not want to know either way.

"It's been a long time since we've done a mission together. I just got here since being away in South America." Xander smiled. "I'm not going to let you party monkeys have all the fun. I'm in."

Giles bit the tip of his glasses. "Quite frankly, I have never seen a real necromancer and would like to get a bit more knowledge for the library. I'll attend as well."

"Sounds good," Buffy grinned. "Should be a nice crew."

"What about me," Dawn pouted. "If You-Know-Who is back then I want to be there to see."

"Voldemort?" Xander cracked. Dawn gave him a dirty look.

"No offense Dawnie, but we are already at two slayers, a witch, and three extra support people. If it's as bad as Andrew said then we need a better balance then what we have. And if we have too many people it'll be chaos." Buffy spread out her arms as if to '_What can ya do_?'

Eyebrows furrowed in anger, Dawn set her lips together. "But-" she protested.

"Sorry Dawn," Buffy gave her a sympathetic look. "But since we're classified as a terrorist group we need to lay low. Which is hard to do with a million people. Okay, everyone let's gear up. We'll have Shantha, the secretary, arrange our travel plans. Let's meet up in two hours!"

"I'll let Shantha know," said a helpful Dawn.

"Thanks Dawn," said a shocked Buffy.

"Its no problem," Dawn sweetly said. No problem at all. Her lips twitched faintly into a smile that was gone before anyone noticed.

Nope. It would be no problem at all.

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**A/N**

**WOW**!

I did NOT expect so many positive responses!!!! Thank you so much, I feel very humbled by your interest in my story. Thank you to everyone who is tracking this and gave a review! This has made me decide to expand my story arc and do some reworkings to really create some killer scenes. Your reviews have been extremely helpful and have made me re-think my direction because some people gave me GREAT ideas :) I will respond to everyone at some point soon but I wanted to put in a couple chapters so I can respond without giving anything away ;) For people who were asking for certain things to be explained, that is also coming up.

**NEXT**:

We'll be seeing St. Louis in the next chapter as Buffy, Faith, Willow, Xander, Giles, Andrew, + 1 arrive in town. There they will find whoever they saw on the video tape and the fur will by flying soon :D

**QUESTION**:

Who would you like to see killed off in the Anita Blake series? Some people are going down and its going to be splendid. But indecisive-me is still debating on exactly who to kill and who could be redeemed…………………… HMMMMMM………………………

_(Regardless of the kills I am *so* going to cut Nathan's hair. Ick, creepy child-girl hair)_


	3. Stuck in the Palace of Poofs

**Let's Hear it for the Monsters… NOT!**

**Chapter 3: Stuck in the Palace of Poofs**

**A/N:**

Forget that Angel Season 5 ever happened the way it did because I've taken some liberties with a certain someone.

Also, special shout-outs to the readers who guessed correctly on who was on TV: Kaleidofox, ferball, Xeelia, londeaux. You all get warm, gooey, choclately-goodness cookies! _(If I forgot someone, please let me know and I shall grovel accordingly)_

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Moaning softly, Buffy knew she was dreaming. It was a dream that had plagued her mind many times. She saw the soft look of love in Spike's eyes as the amulet began to emanate a golden glow. Her heart ached at the sight of him as the brilliant rays began to overwhelm his vampiric flesh. It was wrong to care for him, to love him for he was a dead thing. But wrong or not, a part of her did love him and that part died at seeing his demise. In every other dream at this point she ran with the speed of a cheetah away from the cave-in to the waiting bus outside.

But something was different this time. This time she observed Spike as the blinding rays of light shot through the cavern. The sunlight seemed like a tangible element that ruthlessly scratched cracks into Spike's awestruck face and chiseled body. Before her very eyes he was disintegrating and there was nothing she could do to stop it. He gave her a charming grin before his smile literally slid off his face.

Buffy stifled a scream as the walls of the malevolent cavern collapsed around her. She grabbed the amulet that Spike wore and prayed to high heaven that she would make it as her world faded to blackness.

Expecting to wake, Buffy was surprised to view a master bedroom through a sea of light fog. No longer was she holding the amulet but she saw it draped on an oak dresser. Sighs and moans drew her attention to the ridiculously large bed that was draped in shades of scarlet. Standing over the bed and smiling was a violet-eyed woman… No, wait a second. Although the person was slim and had hair that cascaded to their ankles, Buffy saw it was indeed a young man who was now taking off his shirt.

Like a moth, Buffy drew closer to the flaming red bed even though her gut told her to go away. She glimpsed the naked backside of a petite woman with curly black hair that fell to her waist riding a man. There was no reasoning behind her action, but she began to revolve around the amorous couple to see who lay beneath the woman.

For a moment her heart stopped as she finally saw the face of the thrusting man. But he wasn't a man. He was a vampire. Buffy grabbed her chest in shock and undeniably saw Spike look directly into her eyes. For a moment it seemed time stopped as they drank in the sight of each other. She knew her eyes were widened in surprise and that flickers of pain with a lining of hope could be glimpsed. Spike's displayed his own shock at her presence and an overwhelming amount of love swam through his eyes.

"Buffy?" he gasped.

"Spike," moaned the woman that Buffy now recognized as Anita Blake. "You will speak no other name besides my own or I will punish you." Throaty laughter spilled from her lips. "I must feed and in order for that to happen you must focus on me so the _ardeur_ can feed upon you."

A defeated look flashed across his features and he cast one guilty, hopeless look at Buffy before he resumed his previous actions.

Buffy clenched her eyes shut and tried to wipe the image from her mind. In a moment she was blinking her eyes awake.

"Buff, you okay? You've been acting out the whole time during your nap. You have to calm down because we can't afford to draw attention to ourselves." Xander rubbed her arm to reassure her and in the process turned so his back faced the rest of the cabin. He didn't want anyone on the plane to see Buffy spazzing out in her window seat.

Instead of calming down, Buffy burst into sobs. There was no reason why; or perhaps it is more accurate to say there were a million reasons why. But for the moment now words were not being transmitted from her brain to her mouth. So she just sat there sobbing while Xander held her; confused on what had upset one of his dearest friends.

After a while her sobs subsided and Buffy took in a shaky breath against the comforting shoulder of her friend. "Buff?" Xander hesitantly asked.

She used the flimsy blanket the flight attendant had given to her and wiped her face clean of tears. "I'm fine, Xand. I'm fine. Just a bad dream mixed in with a vision, I think."

Xander stared at her thoughtfully and stroked her hair reassuringly. "What happened?"

"It began like one of my reoccurring nightmares about our last day in Sunnydale where I left Spike. But this time was different. I saw him actually disintegrate under the weight of the light and all that was left was his amulet. Next thing I know I was in this porno-style bedroom with the amulet laying on the dresser. There was this girly-looking dude standing next to a bed." Buffy took a deep breathe. "And on the bed was Anita Blake and Spike having sex."

Buffy's eyes avoided looking at his face. Xander had always hated Spike. Even though Spike had sacrificed for the betterment of all Xander still didn't like him. Needless to say, she didn't want to see his reaction.

"So apparently he's not being held against his own will if he's doing the dirty with her." Buffy shot him a dark look. "Sorry, Buff. But maybe he doesn't actually need to be rescued."

Wringing her hands together, Buffy gave him a frustrated look. "I don't know Xander. Something was majorly weird in that vision. Somehow, Spike actually saw me and knew I was there. When he noticed me he said my name and Anita ordered him not to speak anyone else's name or she would punish him. She said something about feeding 'the ardeur', whatever that is." Buffy shook her head. "I don't like it. The feeling I got was that he was being held against his own will."

Xander raised an eyebrow. "Buffy, no man can be held against his own will when it involves a naked woman."

She smacked him lightly on the arm. "Don't joke; there's some creepy vibe things that are going on there, I think."

Xander held up his hands in surrender. "Alright, alright. But let's talk about our plans later, in a less conspicuous setting, Mrs. Hamilton." He gave her a sly wink and a grin.

It earned him a laugh, for which Buffy was grateful. "Whatever you say, dear husband." Self-consciously, Buffy ran her hands over her short, red wig that she had procured to go along with her adopted identity as Mrs. Dorthea Hamilton, named after her favorite figure skater.

It annoyed her that they had to go to such lengths for secrecy, but thanks to the vampires they were outlaws amongst their own kind. Once the Vampire Council realized that hundreds of slayers would finally be able to take them out, they banded together quickly. They knew there was no way to eliminate the slayers. The First Evil had tried and failed miserably. Kill one, another one rises. No, the leaders of the vampire world saw a political opportunity. They used their wiles to charm politicians and came 'out of the coffin'

Quickly, vampires were declared legal citizens and were seen to be just people with a dental problem; not to mention a sunlight problem, have to sleep all day problem, and that pesky blood drinking problem. Laws in various countries like the United States were put into place to protected the rights and lives of all vampires.

Whereas before slayers could take the heart and head of any evil vamp they pleased, now suddenly human law mandated procedures that involved court orders. Regular people at one time knew vaguely of the slayers, although they just assumed they were typical bounty hunters; but the Vampire Council knew the slayers would have to be eliminated furthermore as a threat.

The Vampire Council chose public relations as their solution. Several slayers were arrested for 'homicide' throughout the States when they were caught killing vampires. Then the Vampire Council burned down a quaint 2-story brick home with a white picket fence that killed one vampire, his wife, and their two year old girl and a dance club in Las Vegas full of 100 people; 60 who were human. The blame was put on 'The Slayers' and soon they were marked as a terrorist organization that sought the deaths of the undead and their people.

'_Which is so unfair,_' Buffy thought. Since the beginning of time Slayers killed any and every vampire regardless of if he/she was evil or not. But beginning when she met Angel she came to realize that vampires do have souls and while some are ruthless there are others who are good, or decent at the very least. Buffy became very careful about who she slayed and taught that to her army of girls as well. Of course, the majority of vampires *_were_* evil- using their powers to steal blood, abuse, careless murder, etc, so their slaying schedules were full. Besides that, no slayer would ever harm an innocent bystander on purpose.

Unfortunately the media and politicians didn't bother to ask *_her_* about it. Nope, Homeland Security figured out who the top people were and put them on the FBI's Most Wanted list. That meant whenever the traveled to they had to take on aliases. Even the countries that allowed vampire killing were after The Slayers on behalf of their treaties with the U.S. and because they thought the Slayers had killed dozens of innocent people.

Damn vampires and their politics.

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**AT THAT SAME TIME IN ST. LOUIS…**

Spike lay on the edge of bed, exhausted by a round of rough sex. The bird had raked her talons down his chest and blood was still oozing from the wounds. An empty feeling overtook him as he visualized the haunting green eyes of the woman he had died for. He knew she wasn't physically here but somehow her presence had been and he trembled with anger at the memory of the pained look she had given to him.

A part of him admonished himself for never contacting her and he knew she would see that as a betrayal. But how does a man go out in a literal blaze of heroic glory only to pop up magickally five years later and say 'Hey baby, I'm back'? It doesn't work that way. He knew within his very soul that a part of Buffy had loved him and that love was truly earned when he sacrificed himself. But he worried that to contact her would diminish that love and things would go back to the way they were.

At least this way he knew that a part of her still loved him for his sacrifice. That was more glorious and rewarding than finding her again.

But now somehow she knew. Somehow she saw him and knew he was back, not to mention having sex with another woman. Dammit! His fist clenched around the silk scarlet sheet. If he had it his way he would have ran screaming out of the Circus of the Damned six months ago when he had reawakened in this world. The place gave him the creeps, as did the prats who ran the place. '_Although_,' he thought with a grin, '_it is bloody fun giving all these wankers a hard time. Almost makes up for being stuck here in the Palace of Poofs.'_

If only he could leave. But It wasn't allowed.

"Spike? You're needed for guard work. The Las Vegas Master and his wife are coming soon. Get ready."

Spike gazed up at the petite brunette whose dark features seemed to match the darkness of her personality. "Yes, Master." He sighed and got to his feet to dress.

No, he couldn't leave. Because *_she_* would not allow it.

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**A/N:**

*Aha! Now we know who's in St. Louis! I REALLY liked people's suggestions that I should bring Anya back! I really did because she *IS* fantastic. But I already had Spike planned out along with a fun story of how he was brought back. *sad, puppy face*

*Still taking suggestions on who to take down or redeem from the Anita-verse world.

Current Kill suggestions include: No one major, Malcolm, Narcissus (x2), Valentine, Noah, Caleb, Sylvia, Anita, Jean-Claude, Richard (x2) and the delightfully cruel shadowslayers said everyone should be killed haha…..To Redeem people suggested: Asher & Richard (x2)

……………*rubs hands eagerly like Monthy Burns* Many eeeeeeexcellent suggestions my friends. MWAHAHAHA! ;)

*Also, hope the clarification on why Buffy & the Gang can't be Federal Marshals was helpful. I don't really put anything past that crazy-political Vampire Council *shivers*

*Many, MANY thanks to the reviewers! I love you guys :D

*Coming up~ We'll learn exactly how Spike came back and why he's stuck in St. Louis.


	4. All Teams Are in Position

**Chapter 4: All Teams Are In Position**

**A/N: **This totally goes out to Greywizard. I am truly appreciative of the generous feedback and ideas he gave me for this story. THANK YOU! You are indeed a gentleman and a scholar. :) Also, many thanks to everyone that has read/reviewed./started tracking- y'all are great!

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Buffy and Giles were sitting outside the junior high in their rental vehicle bickering about how to proceed.

"Willow has given us a name. It would probably be best if I went in their and acquired information on the girl so we have a face and address."

Buffy smirked. "Yeah, for sure Giles. I can see it now: You go in and start requesting information on a fourteen year old girl. I'm sure the secretary would not be creeped out at all by an old man trying to look up a teenage girl. Remind me to get some bail money out of my Council account."

His mouth open and closed like a fish. "I am in no such way creepy! I used to work in a school after all."

Rolling her eyes, Buffy leaned forward in the passenger seat. "Giles, look. I'll go in. I'm great at incognito. No one will take a second look at me due to my bouncy blond hair, Bambi eyes, and hip yet adorable outfit. Besides," she added, " if there's chance he's here I can probably get him talking better than you. Two birds with one stone and all that jazz."

"Fine," Giles said exasperatedly. "Go on. I'll wait here."

"Excellent! I knew you would see it my way." Buffy slid out of the car and began walking towards the school. She stifled a yawn and tried to wake up. Their plane had arrived late last night and as soon as they got into the hotel rooms Andrew had finished briefing them on the situation. Faith, Xander, Willow, and Andrew were hitting up some of Andrew's contacts around town and later heading to Guilty Pleasures to do some reconnaissance. Guilty Pleasures was a vamp/were bar owned by Jean-Claude. If there was information on Spike to be found, it would probably be there.

Hence why she was on the Slayer Mini-Me mission. Sure, she had told everyone it would be best for the young slayer if she, as leader of the Slayer army, met the girl but in reality she wasn't quite ready to see Spike. Her vision/dream had freaked her out and she still needed time to wrap his existence around her head.

Before entering the school office, Buffy put on a bright smile. Everyone liked a person that smiled, after all. It was lunchtime so the halls echoed with noise from the cafeteria and Buffy was pleased to see that the secretary must be out to lunch as well. Score!

Sliding into the room, Buffy went straight for the binders on the back wall. Sure enough, they were labeled by class and alphabetical order. Double Score! This was going to be far easier than she thought. Glancing over her shoulder she saw no one else and began rifling through the pages of the eighth grade class. Let's see… She was looking for Zoe Peterson…

Mid-way through the P's a deep voice startled her. "Uh, hello? What are you doing in the student files." Her eyes widened but she masked her emotions as she turned around. Standing before her was the man Andrew had briefed her on last night. Schoolteacher by day, Werewolf Ulfric by night. And complete hotness in at all times of the day. She recognized his tall frame, long brown locks, and handsome face from the file photo they had. Yum. He was much tastier looking in person.

Realizing he was waiting for a response she put on her 'Innocent Girl' smile again, this time with a bit of a flirtatious edge. "Hey there," she said warmly. "My name is Dorthea Hamilton." _'Damn_,' she thought. Without a plan she had used her US alias, except she realized how very unattractive that name was. She scrounged her mind for a good excuse. "I'm from the radio station, KISS FM." There had to be a KISS FM in every major city, right? After all, there aren't that many four-letter words to be used as a radio station name.

She walked up to him and shook his hand firmly, all the while eyeballing him. After seeing him in the flesh she had a new idea on how get Richard Zeeman to talk to her tonight.

"Hi there." He smiled but there was still a glint of suspicion in his eye. "I'm Richard Zeeman, a teacher here. Ms. Hamilton, is there something you're here for?"

Buffy smiled coyly and giggled in a way that would have made her old Hemery High self proud. "Well, I originally came here for one reason but now I'm thinking I may have two." She could hear his pulse speed up. Oh yeah, score one for the Buffster. She may be more responsible and slightly more boring, but she could still flirt with the best of them.

Richard gave her a warm smile. "What is your first reason?"

Buffy leaned in conspiratorially, just so she could be close enough so her could smell her new perfume and allow her hand to graze his arm. "Well, I'm looking for a Zoe Peterson who's in the eighth grade. She won a radio contest and I wanted to give her the prize. No one was here and I didn't want to bug anyone on their lunch break," she shrugged innocently, "so I thought I would just help myself."

"Well, Ms. Hamilton-"

"Dorthea, please."

"Dorthea." He smiled. Ohhh yeah, he was falling hook, line, and sinker. "We have a strict policy about student records so you can't be looking in there."

Covering her mouth with her hand she squeaked out an "oops!" She allowed a bit of eye-batting, but not too much. She wanted to be believable after all. "Richard, I am so sorry! I didn't realize."

He eyed her and then smiled. "It's all right. Zoe is actually one of my students. I can introduce you both."

"Well, that would be very kind of you. You'll have to let me know if I can ever return the favor sometime." She wet her lips and gave him her 'sex eyes'; the kind that whispered how she would be able to do all sorts of favors for him.

He gulped audibly and tried to hide a nervous smile. He seemed at a loss for words and instead motioned for her to follow him.

Now, wasn't it better that she had gone instead of Giles?

* * *

It was December so darkness fell early, though not as early as Dawn was used to in England. She had been holed up all day because she was feeling extra paranoid about any of the other Scoobs seeing her around town. Only vaguely sure of their plans, Dawn wanted to be careful they didn't run into her. The plane trip had been stressful enough. Five years after Sunnydale was demolished she was really starting to come into her own as a witch, thanks to Willow. One the plane she had suppressed her essence so no one could sense her and thankfully it worked, alongside her wicked awesome disguise.

Dawn had her disguise on again with a few minor alterations. Her long light brown hair was pinned up and covered by a black curly wig with red highlights. Heavy make-up ensured a dramatic facial change and she was dressed in a skimpy black tank and tight, ripped jeans with delightful leather jewelry. Yeah, it was a definite punk-goth look but Dawn knew she wasn't recognizable and that was all that mattered. It would do the trick; of entering Jean-Claude's lair underneath the Circus of the Damned, the local attraction for St. Louis freakness for all to see (for a nominal ticket fee, of course).

Cash grasped in her hand, she waited eagerly in line to enter. After arranging the travel plans with Shantha, Dawn had also 'helped' Andrew compile all his information of the St. Louis folks so he could take it with them. Now she was as informed as the rest of them; perhaps even better so since she knew Buffy, Xander, and Faith didn't always pay attention in briefings.

Somewhere in this building was Spike, Dawn was sure of it. Her anger incensed at the thought what these bastards must be doing to him. After all, she knew that if he was alive he definitely would have called her if he was able. Sure, she can see him staying on the down-low when it came to Buffy due to their really weird history but she was his Niblet. Spike had been for her numerous times when she really needed someone and there was no way she was going to let him be tortured or whatever was happening to him.

Dawn only hope that she found him first. It worried her that Buffy and the others were in town. They had a tendency to kill first, ask questions later sometimes. And since Spike could be a real sarcastic asshole occasionally it was even more likely that things would erupt into a fight if they met up. Besides, Dawn was a bit worried that maybe Spike was back into the Big Bad business. If so, she knew it was possible that Buffy (or at least Faith or Xander) would stake him without a second thought. She, however; was prepared to talk to him and, if need be, convince him to step away from the evildoer path these local vamps were treading on.

Yet… She was definitely hoping there would be no need for her Oprah-ish self-help talk. Because she was about to step into a nest of vipers and it would be nice to have at least one friend on the inside.

* * *

Spike took a long drag on his cigarette and blew it in the Master of the City's face. Jean-Claude's eyes flashed with anger but he kept his expression otherwise in check. "Listen here ya bloody wanker. I'm not some randy show dog you can bring out to play fetch for your friends." He jerked his head towards the S&M black leather outfit the werewolf and Pomme de Sang of Jean-Claude's, Jason, was holding with an amused expression. "And I'm certainly not going to wear that. A man's got to have a bit of dignity; something you clearly lack judging by that sodding ruffled shirt you're wearing."

Jean-Claude gazed at Spike over clasped hands and spoke calmly in a cold voice. "Listen to me Spike. You work for me and since the Master of Las Vegas is arriving tonight I need you to properly dress as a member of my kiss and to showcase your 'talent'."

Scoffing, Spike took another drag on his cigarette. "You've been drinking too much crazy wolf blood if you think I'm going to play along, Liberaci. I like my leather duster just fine, thank you, and don't need to dress like a member of Chippendale's. And like I said, I'm not your dog so shove off."

Growling, Jean-Claude picked up Spike by the neck and threw him against the wall. Spike winced and then started laughing. "Well now, that tickled mate! I'm still not bloody going to do it though. And there's not a damn," he drawled, "thing you can do about it. You can't kill me without hurting your precious pet and I'm getting well sick and tired of playing lap dog."

The vision or whatever it was of Buffy gave him a bit more fire tonight. Spike had been bloody trapped here in St. Louis for 6 months thanks to Anita Blake bringing him back. He still had no idea how it happened but somehow the amulet he had used to close the Hellmouth had turned up in North Carolina just when Anita was visiting that Jason's family. Drawn to the energy of the dead that it emanated, Anita took the amulet back home with her. Then, like usual, the bird had done some metaphysical mojo and Spike had been brought back as a ghost. He bristled at the memories of that time when he was stuck in some sort of limbo. Of course, it was bloody fun 'haunting' all the prats that were in Anita's life.

But one day came the event that changed everything. Anita was stuck in a losing battle with a vampire and was losing a lot of blood. She was all alone, besides him. And as a ghost he didn't think he could help, even though the bird wasn't half bad once she was away from her simpering boyfriends. Unbeknownst of the depth of her power Anita called on Spike to save her in a last ditch effort to win. Blood from her wounds splashed onto his spiritual form and she called upon his resurrection using her will. Next thing Spike knew he got a nasty punch from the bad vamp in question and was surprised that he had a tangible form. Needless to say he kicked the vampire's ass and saved the day.

Too bad he couldn't save himself. By resurrecting him Anita had tied Spike to her as her Vampire Servant and Spike quickly realized that he was stuck taking orders from a bossy, manipulative bitch. He had tried to at least get her to release him from St. Louis but her partner in manipulation, Jean-Claude, had put a stop to that idea once he realized the gift Spike had received for his sacrifice. Now mind you, Spike enjoyed his gift *very* much but he detested that it forced him to do the bidding the curly-haired pretty boy standing in front of him.

The pretty boy in question threw the dominatrix outfit at Spike and snarled, "Killing the vampire servant of my human servant may indeed kill her and in turn kill me, but damn you Spike, you are making it very hard to refrain from killing you."

Spike flicked his cigarette at Jean-Claude. "Now, now, JC. Keep up that talk and I might be thinking you don't like me or something." Spike grinned with satisfaction as Jean-Claude stalked out of the room, fuming.

Being stuck here wasn't fun but it did have its moments.

* * *

"Now, please remember," Andrew intoned in his best Masterpiece Theatre voice, "that this strip club is unlike many others. We will be relieved of all our weapons, crosses, and silver."

"If they see 'em, that is," Faith snorted. "These pants may be tight but I'm def hiding some surprises."

"Do we really have to go to a male strip club?" Xander whined. "Can't Will just do some voo-doo and get us the info we need?"

Willow rolled her eyes and glared. "Xander, I've been doing this for almost ten freaking years. It's not voo-doo! It's witchcraft and you know it."

Xander held his hands up in surrender and gave a bashful smile.

"Besides Xander, at least half of our entourage will appreciate it so you will just have to deal," Andrew offered.

Xander counted Faith, Willow, Andrew, and himself with his index finger. "Don't you mean just one, on account of Will liking the womenfolk?"

Andrew's eyes widened and he laughed nervously. "Ah, oops! My mistake. Just twenty-five percent."

Although Xander seemed oblivious, Willow and Faith locked eyes and smiled.

Faith's gangsta ring tone by The Game began going off and she sung along. "Go ahead and envy me, I'm rap's MVP." She opened it up and greeted the caller. "B! What up?" She nodded and made noises of agreement. "Cool. We're just now walking up to Guilty Pleasures. We'll holler if we need you, otherwise see you back at the hotel."

"Buffy there?" Willow asked.

"Yup," Faith told her. "And Giles is meeting up with his contact as well. All teams are in position."

"Ya know, as plans go, I'm not really a big fan of hers," Xander grumbled.

"Xand-Man!" Faith rolled her eyes. Don't worry 'bout it. Besides, what are you grumpy for? Please don't tell me you're still mooning over the Buffster."

"No!" he said quickly. "Definitely not. I'm just sayin', its not fair that she gets to go on a date while I'll be stuck staring at g-strings with very unattractive contents."

Faith laughed. "Speak for yourself. I for one am always happy to combine business with pleasure." She let out a low whistle. "This is gonna be fun!"

* * *

**A/N:**

*Hangs head in shame* I am so sorry, dearest readers! I have been quite naughty in refraining from continuing this story. When I tried to write it, my muse for my other story (_A Vampire Slayer in Middle-Earth_) was pestering me more than a dog with a stick so I had to continue that. Plus, you know how life is (blah!)

Anyways, here is the next installment- Merry Christmas lol. Please be patient with me as we proceed to Anita Smack down '09 because I don't want to just write drivel and actually have some interesting storylines set up; therefore I'll need some time before the climax. But I definitely promise to do better than just post once every two months! *does Girl Scout promise sign*

**Next up: **Dawn runs into mini-sized Big Time trouble, Faith loses her cool, and Richard gets a rude wake up call. We'll also be seeing what Spike Big Bad vampire gift is that made JC covet him so (and no, its not his rock hard abs although that is a valuable reason haha)

**QUESTION: **Which characters from the 2 worlds do you want to see interact the most? I'm not talking just sexy-fun times but even just conversation. Andrew & Asher? Xander & Anita? Faith & The Wicked Truth?

Please review! I love hearing your opinions; they make me happy :D


	5. Its Hard to Shrug While Pinned to a Car

**Chapter 5: It's Hard to Shrug While Pinned to a Car Hood**

**A/N:**

Sooooo many thanks to Greywizard for being my beta! He is amazingly awesome and I appreciate all the help he's given me (I am a horrible proofer myself).

* * *

Jeez, the Circus of the Damned was teeming with creatures of the underworld! Dawn had expected there to be random vamps and maybe even weres but Jean-Claude had his secret lair well-guarded by numerous were-thugs and vampires. It might be harder getting underground then she had thought, although not impossible. Dawn may not be a Girl Scout but she sure as hell came prepared with her bag of wiccan goods that were stuffed into her huge shoulder bag.

Creeping into the women's restroom, Dawn hid in a stall. Pulling out some genuine pixie dust taken from Willow's private storage (but Dawn would pay her back, of course; her klepto days were over, she swore), Dawn threw it above her head. Twirling as the dust descended, she tried to get it all over her body and she mumbled some key Latin words. Then she spritzed on some very special 'perfume'.

Hmm. She didn't really look different. Maybe it didn't work? This was the first time she had done this spell, after all. Dawn stepped out of the stall and her shoulder smacked another women.

"Sorry!" she reflexively apologized.

The woman took a look in her direction and screamed. Clutching her chest, she walked out of the bathroom without another word.

Gazing into the mirror, Dawn grinned widely.

"Very cool," she whispered.

* * *

Electronic music pulsed in the dimly lit strip club. Bustling with activity, there were dozens of women throwing money at the stage, screaming at their tables, or surrounding the bar. Xander, Willow, Faith, and Andrew had a table in the darkest corner of the club and watched the area with interest. Their goals tonight was to figure out where Spike was and if he was being held against his will, not to mention scouting out their potential targets if it came to a fight.

"Wow," said Willow. "Can you believe this?"

Andrew was watching a highly flexible young man with hair that fell down to his ankles dance up on the stage. "No," he said honestly. "I cannot."

Willow raised her eyebrow in amusement. "I was commenting on the fact of how different life is now that the vamps are out of the closet. Could you ever imagine the Master or Evil Angelus running a strip club?"

Xander grimaced. "The Master was one rat-tastic looking dude. I really would hate to see a strip club of his."

"Yum," Faith muttered.

"Yum?" Xander exclaimed. "Did you ever *_see_* pictures of the Master? We're talking more wrinkly than Larry King and scarier than Liz Taylor. No yum."

"What? No, dorkus, I was talking about leather pants and fishnet shirt over there by the bar." She stood up. "I'm gonna get a drink. Be right back."

"Faith, this is a serious mission, you cannot run wild and pick up random strangers," Andrew declared, with his best 'Watcher' face on.

'_How delusional is Andrew that he would think Faith would respond well to orders like that?_' Xander thought to himself with a grin. '_Oh well. Some things, after all, never change.'_

"Stop worrying, Giles, Jr. We're here to get information and this is the best way I know how."

She flashed him a grin and walked towards blondie, who was arguing with a vampire who had flaming red hair and the palest skin she had ever seen.

Definitely an old one, judging by the power she could sense coming off him, she decided as she approached them. And if she wasn't mistaken, she was pretty sure this guy was a member of Anita's weird power thing. What did Dork-Boy call him? Domino? Damian? She couldn't quite remember his name. Hey, she had done her best to pay attention to Andrew but there were just *_way_* too many men in the Federal Marshall's life for her to keep track of!

She allowed the crowd to push her up right against the blond. To prevent herself from falling, she pressed her hands against his chest. Ooh. Nice.

"Oops," she grinned. "Pardon me." Her hands traveled nonchalantly down the front of his well-muscled chest. "The crowd is insane in this place."

He ran a hand through his short blond hair and smiled brightly. "Well, I'll have to buy the next round for everyone if they're the ones responsible for pushing you into me. My name's Jason, beautiful lady. What's yours?"

Faith had to control herself from expressing her surprise. She'd thought there was something different about him and lo and behold! He was a werewolf. Not just any kind of were, though, she remembered that Jason Schuyler was close to both Jean-Claude and Anita. Jackpot!

"Rachel Black," she said softly and gave him a peck on the cheek. They had all agreed ahead of time to use their alias while in the States. "Nice to meet you," she added coyly.

Like a million guys before, he grinned at her flirtatious attempts. She loved Robin but there were times when she missed the thrill of flirting and making men want her. In her old days, she fed off that energy. Leaning against the bar, she graced the red headed vamp with her 'knock 'em dead' smile. "And who's your friend?"

"This is Damian," answered Jason. "And he was just leaving, weren't you?"

Damian graced her with a dazzling smile and she had a feeling he was trying to capture her with his eyes. "How can I leave now that this gorgeous creature has arrived?"

"Excuse me for one second," Jason said and he stepped closer to Damian. Faith played the part of the stupid girl and tried not to notice how Jason glared at him. "I thought you said you were going to leave. Your behaving very erratically and I *_know_* you don't want to do anything to make Anita upset at you."

"Honestly, Jason. I think I'm old enough to make my own decisions, don't you?" Damian's voice was soft but as hard as steel. Huh. Must be trouble in the ranks.

"Whatever," Jason muttered. "Don't say I didn't tell ya so." He turned back to her and flashed her a smile. "Now Rachel, would you like to join me for a drink on the balcony?"

"The balcony?" She let her eyes grow big. "That sounds great!"

As Jason waited to pay for their drinks, Faith texted the rest of the Scoobs to let them know her plan. It was never good to get separated in enemy territory but this was a public place after all.

It should be fine.

* * *

Buffy smoothed her pleated dress as she sat in a dark, romantic corner of an Italian restaurant. In order to avoid the awkward explanation of why a radio station employee was living in a hotel, she and Richard had made plans to meet here.

Overall, Buffy was very pleased with how the day had gone. Richard had introduced her to Zoe at lunch and they had made plans to meet after school. Following that, Richard had asked her out in a very adorable and awkward manner which she eagerly accepted. He seemed surprised that she wanted to have a date that very night but she has explained about her packed work schedule. In addition to her success with meeting with Richard, her talk with Zoe had gone surprisingly well… considering that the poor girl was more interested in kissing vampires instead of killing them, thanks to that damn fool, Stephanie Meyer.

Andrew had given her the whole scoop on the Ulfric, including his strange relationship with Anita and Jean-Claude. Apparently, Richard was currently very aggressive on the dating scene in an effort to find someone to replace his ex, the Executioner. Therefore, her hastily made-up plan to have him ask her out worked perfectly. Now, she just hoped her upcoming conversation with him would go as well.

Speaking of… "Hey, Richard," she stood up and greeted him with a kiss on the cheek. He looked da-a-a-amn fine in a dark red dress shirt and brown slacks. "How are you?" she asked as they sat down.

"Now that I'm here with you, just wonderful."

Buffy fought the urge to roll her eyes. Sure, he was hot and he seemed like a *_really_* nice guy, but he was a bit too much in the romance department – at least, for a first date. Of course, that might be due to her own kinda tarnished thoughts on romance, all of which were thanks to the rather creepy actions of Angel ( Hello! Hiding in shadows and giving cryptic messages was definitely more stalker than boyfriend) and the somewhat abusive behavior of Spike (Sure, she enjoyed fighting him all the time, too, but there must be something wrong with her to get turned on by that. Because if she ever saw anyone treating Dawn like that, she'd break all of their limbs into tiny little pieces).

Of course, on the other hand, at least they both had the hotness thing going on for 'em.

Conversation flowed easily between her and Richard throughout the wine and appetizers. Once their entrees arrived, though, Buffy knew she would have to broach the intended purpose of their meeting. It was getting hard to figure out how to say, "Hey, so you know your ex-girlfriend? Do you know if she's evil and has kidnapped my ex-lover?"

Actually…

She put down her silverware and looked at him. "Richard, I have a confession."

His eyebrows drew up. "What is it?"

Sighing, she said a little prayer that this would go well. "I kind of know who you are."

Was it just her, or did his eyebrows draw up even further in confusion? "Yeah… I would hope so since we're on a date together."

Buffy bit her lip nervously. "Actually, I meant I know who you are in your other career."

"My other…?" Richard's eyes narrowed suspiciously. "Who are you?"

"I'm a friend, trust me."

"I've been learning recently what a bad idea it is to trust people. What makes you any different?"

"Because I'm a member of the supernatural community as well and I fight the evil in the world. I'm a Slayer."

He leaned back a bit in his chair, his eyes wide with astonishment. "A Slayer? Here? Aren't you all terrorists?"

Rolling her eyes, Buffy took a sip of wine. "Definitely not. We hunt evil vampires and, unfortunately, the Vampire Council has used their considerable resources to frame us for heinous acts that involved killing innocents."

"Still, in this country it's illegal to kill a vampire without a warrant," he argued.

Gazing seriously into his brown eyes she spoke softly. "Let's be honest with each other, Richard. There are some okay vamps but a lot of them are just flat-out evil. As the Ulfric, you should know this."

Richard began running a hand through his long locks and looked deep in thought. "So," he finally said. "What is it you want with me?"

"I need information. There's a British, blond vampire here in town by the name of Spike. We think he's with Anita Blake and Jean-Claude. However, we have yet to figure out where. Unfortunately, given the fact that vampires tend to kill slayers on sight, it's been tricky for us to investigate."

"And you think I'm going to help you? We have a good thing going for the supernatural community of St. Louis, all things considered. Why should I give you information that might hurt that?"

Buffy snorted. "Richard, I'm not asking for you to help me take people out. I just want to know where Spike is and talk to him. And if he's being held there against his will, we're going to take him back with us."

"I don't think that can happen." Richard shook his head.

Okay, Wolf Boy was starting to get on her nerves. "And why not?"

"Because he's a powerful asset. Jean-Claude will never let him go. Not to mention, Anita is tied to him."

"What? How? Why?"

He held up his hands. "Whoa, there! Hold up a minute! Those two are connected to me *very* strongly and, like it or not, I should not be telling you more. I've heard stories of you guys. You like to go in and kill first and ask questions later. You kill the wrong person and that may affect me. I'm sorry, Dorthea, but this conversation is over."

Richard got up to leave but Buffy grabbed his hand. "Please, Richard."

He looked wary. "I don't know…"

She gave him a steady look. "Richard, all I want to do is help a friend. Can't you just answer a couple questions for me, please?"

"Sorry, but I've got to worry about my own friends first."

Still holding his hand she clenched it harder and responded snidely. "Tell me, do you enjoy being the Master of the City and Anita's lapdog?"

She felt a wave of energy come off him as he stared at her. Damn. She hadn't dealt with many Ulfrics before (as in zero) but this guy's power packed a punch.

"You lie to me, you insult me, and you expect me to help you?" he snarled. Yanking his hand from hers, he stalked out of the restaurant. She threw cash on the table and rushed after him. Once she got outside, she glanced around fervently and spotted him next to a car at the edge of the lot. He was starting to open it when she slammed it shut.

A growl rose out of his throat. "I don't like to kill people, but I will do it if I have to."

"Listen," she said sternly. "My name is Buffy Summers and I am the Commander-in-Chief of the Slayer Army. If you want to make threats, you should probably make them elsewhere. Besides, I've done my homework. You're a good man, Richard. You don't kill for fun, unlike some of your other associates."

He snarled and pushed her against the side of the hood. His lower half was pressed against her and if she didn't know better, she'd think he was getting a happy from hurting her. Maybe this date counted officially as business, but nonetheless she needed to stay away from the sadistic males

"Oh, so I'm a good man but I'm also Anita and Jean-Claude's lapdog?" he snarled.

She pushed out, encircled his waist with her thighs, and using the hood for leverage she flipped both of them backwards. Now he was laying on his hood with Buffy straddling him; her hands holding his arms down.

"Maybe you don't want to admit it, but based on everything I've heard, you are their bitch downtown. Hell, you even have a human as your Bolverek? No self-respecting werewolf would do that. What the hell is your deal? Where's your self-respect? I need you to stop being a sniveling fool and help me get another innocent person from their clutches!"

"You really think I'm a lapdog to them?" he asked in a dazed voice.

"It's not just me. We get our information from various sources, and it seems that's the general opinion on you as far as the various were groups is concerned."

He growled. "Well, I am not! We're joined in power for the betterment of all three of us."

"Is it really for all three of you? Because from what I hear, both Anita and Jean-Claude are growing in power and you haven't gotten much of anything." Damn, she was really going to have to thank Andrew later on for all the awesome info. Maybe she'd pick him up a classic Star Wars action figure off E-Bay.

Richard was silent as he took in her words.

"Am I wrong?" she asked him.

"No… No, you're not wrong. Since we've entered into this triumvirate, everything in my life has gone south. It's helped me out a couple times but it's been more burden than good."

"Then why are you with them still?"

He shrugged, sorta. It was hard to shrug while being pinned to a car. "I'm not really sure. I guess my power base is stabilized now -- but I don't really know."

"Well, maybe it's time you left them."

Richard gave her a sharp look. "Just so I can help you?"

"No," she said, exasperated. "But we know Spike is here. We also have extensive information on every supernatural being in this town and we know that not everyone is going to end up on Santa's Good List.

"However, Ulfric, we do not care about pack life. Slayers only hunt others who hurt innocents. We are not going to interfere with your rule. But I have a very strong suspicion that your ex-fiancé is holding my friend Spike against his will. If that's true, then that means I'm gonna need to break him out. And if it comes to that, a lot of people, including weres and vamps are gonna die. But if you help me, it doesn't have to be that way.

Now, are you gonna help me?"

A minute passed as he simply looked at her. Finally he nodded.

"Thank you," she said with a smile.

* * *

**A/N:**

So…

Buffy is getting Richard to help her (and got to yell at him for being dumb- Who wouldn't LOVE to do that? Haha), Faith is enjoying combining business with pleasure, and Dawn has done some sort of spell (what do you think it is?).

Many MANY thanks to everyone who is reviewing and reading- I'm so glad people are enjoying it!

**Next up: **Our first AB death… I *really* hope no one is going to be mad at me! But.. This person deserves it, trust me.

Also, I KNOW, I KNOW people want to see death and destruction… We are approaching ever closer to the showdown! I promise!


	6. Aw, She Ruined Our Secret Cover

**Chapter 6: Aw, She Ruined Our Secret Cover**

**A/N:**

Greywizard, many thanks once again for betaing and giving me feedback/ideas. You are helping to make this story even awesomer and eviler (Okay… I know those are not real words. That's just how special you are; you get fake words made for you! ;)

* * *

Giles sat in the darkened corner of a pub on the seedy side of town. His contact in St. Louis sat across from him. While his face was shrouded in shadows, Giles recognized the sound of his voice from their several phone conversations.

"Thank you for meeting me here. On behalf of the Council, we greatly appreciate your work for us."

"Think nothing of it," he said gruffly. "When my aunt told me that she used to work for you fellas as a Watcher, I was happy to extend my services to such a noble institution."

"Thank you," Giles said with a nod. "It is a shame more Americans can't realize that."

"That's exactly why I wanted to help you. The whole damn legal system has been taken in by these demons and it's practically impossible to get to the root of the problem."

"Indeed. Tell me, what more information can you give us on the Executioner?"

His contact chuckled. "Mr. Giles, I haven't called her the Executioner in a long time. After all, it's hard to kill the damn dead things when you're fucking them."

Giles winced at the man's vulgar speech but admitted to himself there was some truth to that. "Whatever you call her, please tell me what you have collected on her."

Leaning forward, Giles could just make out the outline of a huge grin on his contact's face.

"You might want to take some notes. 'Cause I've got enough information to write a book; maybe even seventeen."

"Excellent," Giles said with a small smile.

* * *

Dawn had to refrain from giggling at the success of her spell. After all, she had made herself invisible and suppressed her scent, but they could still hear her. It was a shame she had been unable to find a good spell for that. But hey! She had been having some most excellent luck. Meandering through the crowds and past security had been pretty easy, more or less. Now she had managed to get down to the lower levels and had to suppress her glee. She had a feeling Spike was here, she just knew it!

Uh-oh. Perhaps her happiness had come too soon.

Further down the hall two vampires headed her way, and moving fast. Even though she may be all Invisible Girl, if they bumped into her they could catch her easily enough.

Spotting an open doorway, she ducked into it. She found herself in a small antechamber and she could hear symphony of voices coming from an attached room, so she decided to check them out.

Walking through that door, she had to clasp her mouth shut to keep from gasping.

The room was absolutely decadent, with several long tables covered with rich cloths and crystal goblets. Above the room were three chandeliers that rained down glimmers of reflected light. Large Renaissance paintings depicting beautiful women and men hung on the walls. In the corner came piano music that was so vibrant it seemed to dance along her arms.

As lovely as those things were, however; they were not the things she noticed the most.

Nope. What she noticed the most were the twenty or so vampires, plus assorted humans, meandering through the room.

'_Ok Dawn, breathe', _she told herself silently. After all, wasn't this what she wanted? To check out the vampires so she could find Spike? Except, it would have been much easier if she could have just seen them maybe one at a time.

Through bulletproof glass.

While standing in a ray of sunshine.

On top of a dunk tank filled with Holy water.

And holding a crossbow.

Oh well. She was here. May as well make the most out of it.

Sidling against the wall, she took in everyone. The vamps were dressed in their finery, which typically consisted of leather, leather, and more leather. Or old-fashioned outfits with lots of velvet and ruffles. Both styles would have been ridiculed by Joan Rivers.

Well, maybe. Knowing Joan and her refusal to age, she probably would have sucked up to the vamps by calling their outfits to die for, just so they would turn her and she'd be young forever.

Hee. To die for. Gosh, she was funny tonight.

Anyways, back to work.

In the center of the room was Jean-Claude, wearing an outrageous blue velvet jacket, and next to him was one of the most beautiful men she had ever seen. Ice cold blue eyes, porcelain features, and gorgeous long blond locks that she would kill for. That definitely must be Asher, the second in command.

Glued to Jean-Claude's side was the petite brunette that Dawn recognized as Anita Blake. She was dressed in a low-necked halter dress and too high heels. They were chatting amicably with a tall male vampire and a human woman (although she moved with such slinkiness she was probably a shifter) that Dawn didn't recognize.

Visitors, maybe?

Sadly, there was no sign of Spike at all. Dammit! Had she been wrong?

Jean-Claude clapped his hands and all heads turned towards him, even Dawn's.

"Allow me to formally welcome you to the dinner celebrating the arrival of the Master of Las Vegas, Max, and his lovely wife Bibiana, to St. Louis. Friends, we look forward to furthering our relationship during your visit."

Max, the tall vampire beside Jean-Claude, nodded his head. "Thank you, my dear Jean-Claude. After the most generous help you lent us recently, we are most pleased to further get to know you and our Kiss. I trust that our relationship will strengthen over time as we share our resources."

A smattering of polite applause went up. Dawn doubted vamps ever got very rowdy, the old ones were so damn prim and proper.

"For our entertainment tonight," Jean-Claude went on in his silky voice, "we have a bevy of presentations. Tonight, we will begin with introducing an infamous vampire with a powerful gift; we are extremely humbled that he has chosen to join my Kiss. Allow me to introduce the one known as Spike."

Dawn's eyes widened and her thoughts sped in a million different directions.

Spike was here - yay! Spike chose to be there - nay for sure. What the hell was going on?

Spike sauntered out as he sneered at the crowd. Clad in black leather pants, a white tee, and a duster that looked a lot like his last, he looked extremely intimidating. A small bit of dread grew in her stomach that maybe, just maybe, Spike didn't need rescuing at all. Maybe he *_had_* turned evil.

"As you may know, we are very fortunate that St. Louis is a well-run city. However, occasionally we will have to deal with an insolent vampire, who refuses to conform to the rules we have established. Behold!" He raised his hand towards another door where two dark-haired vampires with a strong resemblance to each other pushed out an emaciated male vampire who viewed the crowd with disdain. "This one, known as Dexter, is sentenced to die for insulting me and attempting to kill my Human Servant. He will be executed by Spike."

Spike grinned like a kid on Christmas morning. '_Okay_,' she thought. '_He isn't__acting like a prisoner._'

Dexter was thrown on the floor and he stared up pleadingly at Spike. "Please, don't," he whispered.

"Aw, blimey, mate. It's hard to kill ya when you're on your knees."

"Good, then don't," Dexter retorted, a gleam of hope in his eyes at Spike's words.

"I said it was hard, not impossible."

Smiling, Spike lifted his arms and pointed them at Dexter. A harsh red glow covered Spike's body and suddenly fire as bright as the sun flamed from the tips of his fingers. It hit Dexter with such a force that he screamed like a banshee and tried in vain to beat the magical flames out, but to no avail. Within a minute, he was nothing more than dust.

The audience looked on in awe and gave up an appreciative cheer. Dawn, though, was shocked.

When the hell did Spike get a smiting power? She had to get out of here, this was insane! She started to walk back to the door when her toe hit something and she fell forward. Sadly, in her way was a Greco-Roman statue that crashed to the floor with her.

At the noise, every single pair of supernatural eyes were on her. She could suddenly relate to what a turkey on a farm must feel on Thanksgiving Eve.

"What was that?" Jean-Claude said in an icy voice. "Do we have an intruder?"

Within a second, those two-related looking vamps had rushed towards her, grabbing at the air. She began crawling backwards when one grabbed her hair and tugged. She gasped and within the next second, the two had taken hold of both her arms.

"Well, well, well. What do we have here? Is there a ghost haunting us?" he asked with a bemused smile.

Anita stepped forward. "No, I would feel it if the creature were dead."

"Wicked? Truth?" Jean-Claude asked.

One sniffed and the other one felt her up. "Hey!" she exclaimed in outrage.

"She has no scent," said one

"But this is clearly a woman," said the other.

"Most likely a witch," mused the ice-blue eyed man.

"Lock her up," demanded Jean-Claude. "We'll deal with her after the pleasantries of the night."

She struggled against Wicked and Truth's harsh hold.

"Let me go!" she screamed. As they dragged her out of the room, she went for a last ditch attempt. "Spike! Help me!"

Peering over her shoulder, she saw him gazing in her direction while Jean-Claude and his crew looked at Spike in shock.

"Wait," ordered Jean-Claude. "Spike, do you know this woman?"

Spike was silent for a moment before he answered with a cocky laugh. "Bollocks, mate. I can't bloody see or smell the girl, so how am I supposed to know who she is?"

"Fine then. Take her away. In fact, put her with the other prisoner. And have Valentina guard them," he smiled slyly.

"What? You know you can't trust that psycho Mrs. Chucky doll with a human!" Spike shouted appallingly.

Jean-Claude shrugged gracefully. "What does it matter, if you don't know her?"

Then Wicked and Truth dragged Dawn off, as she stared back at Spike in stunned disbelief.

* * *

"Nooo fucking way," Faith exclaimed. "I know the music is pretty loud up here, but did you just say you were a stripper?"

Jason grinned wickedly. "Yep. In fact, if you play your cards right, maybe you'll get a special preview.

She leaned towards him, one hand on the balcony banister and one on his shoulder. "Baby, I'm a natural card shark." She gave him a sly wink and his grin got bigger. "So how did you get a spot working here, anyways? This place is pretty exclusive to work at, right?"

"Yeah, but Jean-Claude owns it and he knows me."

"Really?" she asked with a raised brow.

He blushed. "Well, he doesn't quite know me like that, but I am rather indispensable to him."

"My, my. That has to be scary, to work with all these vampires."

He shrugged, but Faith could tell he was really enjoying the attention. "It's not scary for me, I'm pretty tough."

Her hand trailed from his shoulder to his bicep and she squeezed softly.

"I bet you are," she agreed with a sultry grin. "But aren't the vampires ever kind of creepy? I mean, they are wicked old and mean. This girl at work told me she met this blond haired British vampire with a weird name like Spock who said he was almost 200 years old! And he boasted about killing a couple vampire slayers to her and he had acted all big and bad."

"Yeah, a lot of them like to talk big. A British one? If he was blond, then she was probably talking about Spike, but I never heard him boast about killing slayers. He's pretty funny, but a regular asshole if he doesn't like you."

Faith nodded and tried to sustain her enthusiasm. "Yeah, Spike. That was it. My girl was interested in hooking up with him again, where does he stay at?"

"Oh, he stays with all the other vampires." He leaned in conspiratorially. "Of course, I can't tell you the location because it's top secret."

Faith swayed her body to and fro along to the beat of the music and rubbed herself against Jason's lower body. "Mmm, you must be quite the powerful man to be know a secret like that."

"Oh yeah," he moaned as he danced closer to her.

"It would make me so hot to actually be in a vampire's lair. I can just imagine me and you, naked, in the middle of their spot. It would be so hot for you to have your way with me, knowing danger is right around the corner."

"Oh, yeah." His breath was becoming more shorter while something else was becoming longer.

Oh yeah, herself. Faith grinned – she was gonna get into the vampire lair! She looked down towards her friends and shot them a thumbs up.

How strange was it that, five years ago, she never would have considered them her friends? Well, actually, Andrew was pushing it, but he was still part of the posse. As her eyes traveled from them back towards Jason, she saw that red haired vampire again.

Damian was dancing slowly with a blond human that mimicked his every move. With his hand, he beckoned her closer and Faith could see that the girl was spellbound, and not in a fairy tale, love at first sight, way. He took her hand, kissed the top of it, and then kissed her wrist. Except it was the fangy kind of kiss.

Dammit! Faith was so close to sneaking in but there was no way she was gonna let some evil vamp suck down a human. It was one thing for those little fangbangers to offer themselves but it was another thing totally for a vampire to use that mind control crap.

"Sorry, Jason. It's been fun. But your friend is sucking down that girl. See ya later."

Giving her a flabbergasted look, his eyes roved over the dance floor. Faith grabbed the railing and flipped down towards Damian.

"This buffet line is closed, leech. Remember, mind control is illegal, you blood sucking Ginger."

His head shot up and she saw drops of blood hanging off his lips. He gave her an annoyed look as he pushed the girl away. "Go away, little girl. Leave me be."

Faith stroked her chin thoughtfully. "Hmm. Gallup just did a poll and 99% of people responded that I should kill you. Who am I to argue with popular opinion?"

Yanking out her cross, she gave him a fierce kick to the solar plexus as he hissed.

* * *

Meanwhile, in another corner of the bar, Xander looked up from the sudden lack of music. "What's going on?"

Willow spotted her first and sighed. "Faith."

"Aw, she ruined our secret cover," Andrew whined.

"Dammit. The cavalry's coming out and I don't think it's ours. We have to help her," Xander said urgently.

* * *

"Stop this!" cried out a long haired vampire. "What's going on here?"

"She's a Slayer!" Damian cried right before Faith choke-slammed him.

"And you're dust!" she cried as she drove a silver stake into his heart. There was a resounding gasp from the crowd around them watching as she did so.

Looking up, she smiled nervously. "Listen, he mind controlled a girl to feed off of. Not my fault he got a death sentence."

The stripper with the ankle-length hair that had performed earlier was staring at Damian's body and he began screaming. His body crumpled to the floor and he clutched his heart as if he were in severe pain.

"Kill her," cried one of the vamps.

"But I paid your stupid ten dollar cover!" Faith complained as she ducked a punch and delivered a kick to another one. Nearby, she heard Xander grunting and Andrew doing his creepy battle cry so she knew she had back-up. But there were way too many of them.

"Will! Some help here!" she yelled.

Willow's chanting rose up and with it, a swift wind that pushed back the bad guys.

"Run!" she cried.

The four of them began running only to meet up with some werewolf bouncers at the front door. More fighting broke out as they struggled to get out. One of the werewolves grabbed Willow and threw her against a wall, and she lost consciousness. Xander picked her up and began carrying her out as Faith battled to free up the way. But as they got closer to the door, Faith saw Andrew being grabbed.

"Andrew!" she cried.

"Get out of here! Save yourselves!" he yelled in his most dramatic voice, even as he threw himself backwards against his captor, causing the two of them to fall in front of the group trying to get out the door and after the other Scoobies.

Fuck. Should she leave the dweeb? She didn't have to answer that question because one of the dudes kicked her clear out of the door and she landed on her back. Xander pulled up in their rental car.

"Get in, Faith!"

"But Andrew-"

"We can't help him now. We're way outnumbered and armed with only a couple stakes and crosses. We'll come back for him."

"All right," she resigned as she threw herself into the front seat.

They quickly peeled out of there and left angry howls in their wake.

* * *

**A/N:**

Alright…

Who do you think is Giles' contact? I'll give 10 cookies to whoever correctly guesses!

Dawn is being taken to Valentina… Hmmm… Wonder what shall happen to her? (teehee; Dawn taken prisoner= Must be Tuesday!)

Spike's got a BAMF power, to be explained next… But I bet you smart cookies have guessed why already.

Andrew's been captured… How long until he drives the vampires of St. Louis insane? LOL.

And finally… Faith killed Damian… *winces at angry Damian fans who are yelling*. I'll tell ya why I killed him:

*He's ANNOYING ("omg, Anita, I so just want to have sex with you soooo bad blah blah blah")

*SUPER EMO ("Oh boo, Anita I'm so sad because I sleep in your basement and how can I have sex with hot fangbangers if my crib is so lame")

*He's a FREAKING GINGER: We all know (if you enjoy South Park that is) that Gingers are the lowest of life forms

_(ok, my dear red-headed readers, I am just kiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiding! Haha)_

*He's CREEPY- at one point the did try to take blood by bewitching a girl, so yeah. Creeper.

*And finally because it screws up Anita's power base… she loses his calming ability and such.

*******FYI**: Just to let you know I've finished with my chapter outlines and me thinks this will be about 12 chapters, including the Epilogue. So we're halfway done! Woo! Thanks to EVERYONE for reading/tracking/ and **ESPECIALLY REVIEWING! **Your reviews are DEFINITELY helping me shape the course of some story parts, especially outcomes for naughty AB people ;) So keep 'em coming!

************* AND… **I think you are especially going to love something I thought of at 2am last night to happen to Anita in the last chapter. Trust me. You will LOVE it. *cackles evily and strokes Mr. Biggelsworth*


	7. Slaying! More Like Laying Vampires

Chapter 7: Slaying? More Like Laying Vampires…

Author Notes: A Few Preliminaries…

**Many thanks to Greywizard for being my Beta! He's been extremely helpful with word choices and grammar. **

**This chapter is dedicated to: SpinelessPunster & ****Xeelia**** for their excellent suggestions!**

…**Sorry ****KyrissDraconis****… You definitely did not get your request ;)**

**Warning**: Character Death! Yay!

* * *

The two vampires known as Wicked and Truth were dragging the invisible Dawn to her intended cell.

Indeed, they were literally dragging her.

"Let me go!" she screeched and kicked with her feet. They each held one arm and although their grip was vise-like, Dawn had no intention of letting this be an easy process. She managed to hit each vampire's legs and Dawn felt a great sense of satisfaction for a moment before the pain rocketed up her legs.

One of the two 'tsked' her. "Really, young invisible witch, do you really think you can overpower us?" he chided her.

"Clearly you are a frail human and would be no match for us, even if we did let you go," the other admonished.

"Well then, let me go and we'll find out. And since you think so highly of yourselves, you both can give me a thirty minute start," she spat out. Both of the brothers laughed heartily.

"An interesting challenge," the first said in an interested voice.

"But it is without a doubt we would find you," said the second. From most other supes, Dawn would have thought his statement to be boastful… Instead, it sounded more factual. She had a feeling these two were not ones to mess with.

"After all, we are excellent trackers."

"Besides," the second one continued. "Our orders were to take you to the cell with the other prisoner."

Dawn remembered Jean-Claude mentioning that. "Who is it?"

The first one, the one on her right, looked her in the eye. Or rather, he tried to look her in the eye, gazing in the general vicinity of where he thought her eyes should be. Dawn was pleased that he could not lock her gaze. Score one for witchcraft!

"Interestingly enough," he told her, "you happen to be the second intruder we have found on our premises tonight."

"Really?" she said in a disbelieving voice. "Who's the other?"

Hearing the little tidbit of information, Dawn was suddenly worried about the status of the other Scoobies.

They shrugged. "We were not there. The one that was captured has not been interrogated - yet. I doubt anyone desires to talk to him; already, he has burned off the ears of others with his incessant ramblings, and he's been here less than two hours, from what I can gather."

"Here we are," said the second with a wicked grin. "Enjoy your stay, witch."

Dawn was flung through the door and she landed roughly in a ten by fifteen foot cell. Turning swiftly, she tried to see if there was a way to sneak past the vampires but they had quickly shut the thick metal door behind her. One bare bulb lit the interior of the room and a two low benches made up the seating accommodations. On one bench was Andrew, who was sitting cross-legged and chanting to himself.

"Andrew!" she exclaimed with happiness. It wasn't that she was happy he had been captured, but she was extremely happy to not be alone in this dreary, damp room.

His head jolted up and he eyed the room warily. "I am traveling on a mighty path of meditation and you shall get nothing from me, vam-pires!" he proclaimed somewhat affectedly.

She snorted. "Cool it, Andy, it's just me." Remembering her invisibility she added, "Dawn."

"Dawn?" Andrew jumped up. "No, Dawn is in England. Aha! There is a foul plot afoot! I assure you, minions of evil, you cannot trick me!" His words were brave but his tone was definitely nervous. His eyes darted all over the room with unease.

"Andrew," she said in an exasperated tone. "Listen, we don't have much time. I jumped on the plane secretly to find Spike. I *_did_* find him, per my goal, but so did Kool and the Gang out there."

He seemed to mull that over. "If you're Dawn, why are you invisible?" he asked accusingly.

Dawn walked over to him and hit him upside the head, not real hard, but not very soft either. "Ow!" he said as he rubbed his head.

"Dammit Andrew! I *_am_* Dawn," she told him, her annoyance clearly evident in her voice. "Remember, witch training and all that? This was my secret disguise."

He nodded sagely. "Ah, yes. Few could sound so frustrated with me. Indeed, you are Dawn Summers."

Dawn wished her invisibility had worn off so he could see her rolling her eyes. "Yeah, yeah. Okay, we have a short amount of time before Jean-Claude sends some vamp named Valentina to watch us. We have to get outta here."

"Where's Spike?"

She sighed, a mixture of resignation and frustration. "Back there. I have no idea what the hell he was doing… He knows we're here but he didn't do anything."

"Oh," said Andrew in a sad tone. "Well that is not good. Neither is Valentina coming, if she's the one I've heard of."

"Why?"

"Um, she's kinda like the Kirsten Dunst vampire in 'Interview With A Vampire', forever a child, plus she's really crazy. Like, crazy-crazy."

Dawn sank onto the other bench in defeat. "Great," she sighed again. She was about to say something else when the door banged open again.

"Knock, knock," called a sweet voice. A young girl who looked like she was five, or perhaps eight, when she died, sashayed into the room.

"Aren't you precious?" she giggled as she ran a hand over Andrew's cheek. He stiffened reflexively and his eyes were fearful as he looked at their latest captor as she cocked her head and turned to look in Dawn's direction.

"How odd," she said with a bemused expression. "I see one human but I hear two hearts beating." She clapped her hands eagerly. "Ooh, I do love a riddle. Let's see." Valentina began walking towards Dawn slowly. "This second heart beats speedily, almost as if it is calling to me.

"Perhaps this second heart would like me to drain it dry and lick it clean?"

"Leave us alone," Dawn said in a strong voice as Valentina stopped directly in front of her.

"Oh, it speaks. The second heart speaks," the little blonde psycho-vamp declared with a wide smile. "What do you want, little heart? To be left alone? But where is the fun in that?"

Dawn thought this Valentina chick seemed a lot like she was Drusilla's Mini-Me. Been there, done that, no thanks.

"The fun in it for you is to be left alive," Dawn warned viciously.

"Yes, we have powerful friends. They will come for us. If you leave now and let us go, we will order them to spare you," added Andrew.

Valentina's eyes shone with a wicked gleam. "Jean-Claude said to take good care of you both - Which means he wants you alive - But then, I think our opinions on 'good care' may vary greatly." Her smile extended until Dawn could see both fangs hang out, ready.

Her mind began racing with a spell, any spell, to get them out of this. 'Stupid, Dawn!' she berated herself. She should have hurried up and done this before Valentina had gotten here instead of arguing with stupid Andrew. 'Let's see… What would work on a vampire?' she wondered to herself as her thoughts flew through her mind.

No time left to think. Valentina had flung herself at Andrew's neck and begun sucking greedily.

Dawn said the first thing that came to her mind. 'An oldie but a goodie. Thank you, Amy!'

"Goddess Hecate," she intoned. "Work Thy will. Before me, let the Unclean thing crawl!"

Valentina's head lifted from Andrew's bleeding neck to stare curiously at Dawn when suddenly, 'poof!' The child vampire popped into a rat that fell from Andrew's shoulder.

"Ew! Kill it! Kill it!" cried Andrew. "Ew, don't let it touch me!"

Dawn shrieked at the rat tried to bite her toe and she slammed her other foot on the rat's head. There was a distinctive sound of broken bone and Dawn made extra sure to smoosh the gross rat parts, just to ensure Valentina the Vampire Rat would not be resurrected.

Wincing, she wiped her foot on the bench. With a raised eyebrow, she said to Andrew, "Dude. You hunt vampires and demons, but you scream at a rat?"

Andrew crossed his arms defensively. "Ever since I saw the cartoon version of the Nutcracker, I have had a morbid fear of rats."

Okay, Dawn could get that. From what she remembered, those things had been way creepy.

"All righty, let's get out of here!" she agreed. She studied the door and began trying to pry it open with her fingers. Her shoulders slumped after a couple minutes of fruitless effort. "Damn, this is hard. I'm not sure how we can open this."

"Can't you just go all 'alohamora' on it?"

Her face wrinkled in annoyance. "Andrew, do I look like I attend Hogwarts? Jeez, you always think just because beginning witches can do it on TV that I can."

"Come on Dawn, are you saying there's not any kind of spell you cold use to open the door, at all?" He sounded frustrated.

She searched her memory.

Oh…Yeah.

Damn, she hated it when Andrew was right.

Whispering a few words in Latin. Dawn beamed when the door opened. The halls were still empty, likely due to the big shindig going on.

Now… If only Dawn could figure out how to make it through this labyrinth…

* * *

It was just another night for Anita Blake. Vampire political party, try to be smiley as she attempted to portray a 'good' Human Servant, and nervously fingered the gun that was hidden underneath her dress. Everything was cool.

Or so she thought.

Suddenly the link between her and Damian opened.

Through his eyes she saw a brunette girl -Damian's mind called her a slayer- as she slammed down a silver stake into his chest. Clutching her own chest, she screamed in pain. His pain was her pain, and the stake HURT!

Dimly, she recognized that Nathaniel was feeling the same way.

Their triumvirate was broken….

And it was killing them.

Once before, she had almost experienced the same thing with Jean-Claude and Richard. But this was worse. It literally felt as if her chest was on fire. Damian's demise was threatening to drag her down to hell with him.

She had no idea how much time had passed. The pain threatened to submerge her mind into the dark waters of unconsciousness.

But Anita Blake was a fighter. She wasn't going to go down without a fight. And she had an idea on how to fight. Instinctively, her mind told her the solution to her salvation.

She stretched out metaphysically to touch another vampire who was tied to her. Swiftly, she grabbed him and her magic, or whatever it was that made up her special abilities, did the rest.

As the process finished, she smiled. The pain was gone.

Indeed, Damian was a tragic loss because she had felt responsible for him, and so the pain of his loss was present. But the emptiness he left in the triumvirate was replaced by a new vampire.

Someone stronger.

A Master Vampire in his own right.

And his power felt delicious.

Delicious enough that Anita mumbled to whoever held her now to bring the members of her second triumvirate to her bedroom. This experience had left one of her other powers craving to be sated.

To fully form their bond, her ardeur wanted those two men here.

And she would have them.

* * *

Buffy leaned back in Richard's passenger seat as her mind calculated all the information she had received from him. He had told her about Spike and the hold Anita had on him - how Spike had some pyro power that made Jean-Claude want to keep him, and that no one had any idea if it was even possible to beak the tie between human and vampire servant.

"So I guess there goes our plan of walking in and calmly asking for Spike to be handed over," she said with a sigh. Why do things always have to be so complicated?

Richard snorted. "Yeah. You might have a better chance now that the Mother of All Vampires is dead."

Buffy was glad that Richard couldn't see her right eye twitch at that bit of news.

"How so?"

"Marmee Noir, the one whom all vampires supposedly descend from, has been snoozing in Europe for maybe a thousand years. But since Anita's grown in power, Marmee Noir has been slowly waking up and wanting Anita for her own," he explained. "That's part of the reason why Anita initially was happy to have Spike around; he would provide excellent defense. But it's not a problem anymore, everyone knows that the Mother was killed in an explosion a couple months ago. Someone managed to not only infiltrate her lair, but they set off a *_very_* powerful bomb that pretty much incinerated everything inside it. There weren't even ashes left, according to the investigators who examined the blast site.

"Hence," he shrugged, "Anita doesn't necessarily *_need_* all of Spike's firepower. But if I know Jean-Claude, he wouldn't give up power like that.

"That is," he added, "if you could even untie Spike without killing him."

Buffy waved her hand. "Let me worry about that. Where's there's a Will, there's a way. My witchy friend can do anything." She gave him a pointed look. "*_Anything_*"

Richard ran a hand through his hair in frustration. "Listen, this is a big deal. I - My pack - I need to think about this, maybe talk to a couple others."

Buffy felt for the guy, she really did. Obviously this was a hard decision for him. She laid a hand on his shoulder reassuringly.

"From what we've talked about in the last couple hours, there's some bad stuff going on in this town, Richard," she said. "It's up to you whether you want to be a part of that or not. Regardless of your decision, thank you for the information you've given me."

Nodding, he gave her a soft look. "I'm thinking maybe I should be thanking you. Your words have given me a lot to think about. I've heard my some of my top pack members, Sylvie and Shang-Da especially, say those things- But to hear it from an outsider?" He shook his head sadly. "Makes me question a lot."

Her heart began feeling weighted with a familiar emotion- guilt. Richard definitely had the ability to do sad puppy face. Or would that be sad wolfy face?

Almost simultaneously, both of their phones went off. Richard stepped out of the call to answer the phone while Buffy glanced at her text from Faith.

\\ Fight Club. Andrew captured. Will knocked out but ok. I killed a bad vamp-NOT my fault! Meet at hotel asap. //

Buffy fought the urge to throw her phone out the window. That was supposed to be a reconnaissance mission! No interaction with baddies! And now Andrew was captured! Great, just great. Well, at least Willow got knocked out this time instead of Giles. He was getting older and the poor man did not need to get hit in the head anymore, that was for sure!

Richard slid fluidly into the car with a grim look.

"There was a fight at the strip club. Know anything about that?" Anger was brewing behind his eyes.

Holding her hands up innocently, she answered. "I just found out. I swear, that shouldn't have happened. But I have it on good authority that there was a bad vampire there and he deserved it. My people didn't go in there to start trouble. Worst of all, one of them is captured now."

"Dammit, Buffy!" He hit the steering wheel with both fists. "Your guys' presence here is stirring stuff up just like I feared. Now Damian is dead and I need to get to Anita. Jean-Claude is the only reason both he and I are still alive since he closed our links." Off her confused look, he explained. "Damian was in a triumvirate with Anita and Nathaniel and I am in a separate triumvirate with Anita and Jean-Claude. If one member dies, then the others die with them. So Anita and her leopard are possibly dying right now and I'm only okay because Jean-Claude is strong enough to deal with it for the moment."

"I guess sorry is pretty inadequate…" Buffy trailed off.

"Just, just get out. I need to leave." He stared straight out the windshield and avoided looking at her.

"Of course."

Buffy got out of the car and headed for her own as Richard peeled out of the parking lot.

* * *

Dawn was disappointed to notice that her invisibility was wearing off. Not that it mattered, because she was creeping through the halls with Andrew. With him being totally visible boy, it didn't really matter if she wasn't.

"Ooh!' Andrew whispered. "Do you hear that?"

"Hear what?" They had been sneaking around for a while and hiding out in random rooms when they heard someone coming. Dawn was completely ready for everyone to stop making noise and just go to bed so they could get the hell out of here. Sadly, since it was a winter night there was still a lot of night time left.

"I think I heard Spike! Down this hall!"

Dawn was sorely tempted to just keep going. After all, she had come to rescue *_him_* and what does he do, but let her get captured! The nerve of it all! Oh no, Dawn was not happy with her Uncle Spike right now. She figured her eyes must have showcased that because Andrew began pouting.

"Dawn, he's down there. We need to get him and fulfill the mission. Besides, I'm sure there's a logical explanation for him letting you be taken off to be interrogated by a vicious child vampire."

She bit her lip. "Damn straight there better be," she muttered before reluctantly nodding her agreement.

Following him down the hallway, she was startled to see two brawny male guards at a door. Their presence screamed something supernatural and they easily spotted Dawn and Andrew.

"Who are you?" asked the one with a scraggly goatee.

Dawn pushed Andrew forward to start talking in order to distract him. She didn't listen to what he said but instead focused on her spell – the same one she'd used before. After all, why mess with what you know works, right?

"Goddess Hecate, work Thy will. Before me, let the Unclean thing crawl!"

With another fun 'poof!' the guards were rats. Dawn smiled with happiness at her successful witch-i-ness. Oh yeah, look at her. Turning people into rats, but not herself.

Score!

Andrew leaned in to listen through the door and his face wrinkled in confusion. "Ah… I don't hear Spike talking anymore."

Dawn leaned in and heard distinctive moaning sounds. "Ah, that's because no one *_is_* talking. Dammit." She stood back and looked at Andrew. "Well? What now, Brilliant Plan Man?"

"Well, we know Spike is in there. And is obviously having fun in there. But there is still the matter of rescuing him. And us possibly needing his help to get out of here. So, we should go in. You first."

"Uh-uh. I don't want to see Spike sexing it up with someone. You go," she whispered urgently. Farther down the hallway, around the corner, Dawn could hear people talking.

"Yikes. Okay, we both go. On the count of three. One… Two… Three."

* * *

Spike tried to fight the waves of pleasure that the ardeur brought with it. Anita lay naked in the orgy-sized bed as she licked Nathaniel's neck. Fighting the ardeur was very difficult. Of course, he had never really tried before. But this time, he knew his 'Lil Bit was locked up with that crazy bitch Valentina and he had to go rescue her.

It had been difficult enough to pretend not to know her instead of rescuing her earlier, but Spike wasn't stupid. Him against all those vampires, especially when Anita could control him?

No, it had been wiser to wait.

"Spike," Anita whispered as she began to gently suck on his earlobe. "You seem so far away. Join us."

Ah, damn. That felt good. "I-I," he stuttered.

"I understand. The power of the triumvirate can be a bit much in the beginning. Don't worry." Anita grasped the back of his neck to give him a deep kiss. "In time, it will feel normal, good even."

"Mmm… Good." As the ardeur began taking over, Spike could no longer keep up his fight. She was in his grasp.

And for the moment, it felt good.

* * *

"Holy shit," Dawn whispered as she and Andrew stared in shock.

There, on a bed that could hold twenty people, writhed Anita Blake, some guy with *_really_* long hair, and Spike.

No… It certainly didn't look like Spike was being held against his will.

Gulp.

Andrew rushed to the bed. "Spike, Spike! What are you doing? We need to go!"

Mentally shaking herself, Dawn followed him. Spike drew himself from Anita's- er- breast to look at her.

"Dawn? Andrew?" he said slowly, staring at them like he was on drugs or something.

"Friends of yours?" Anita asked Spike. She eyed them skeptically but Dawn could see an insatiable hunger in her dark eyes.

"What beautiful friends," commented the man with long hair.

Dawn was pretty much flabbergasted. She wondered what Miss Manners would advise on something like this.

'_Dear Miss Manners: I recently walked in on a threesome with my friend and two strangers. What is the correct way to make introductions and proper protocol in this type of situation? Is it bad manners to not have brought a gift, or at least some condoms?_'

Then suddenly, Dawn wasn't thinking idle thoughts anymore.

A wave of heat hit her and Dawn felt it tug on her lower body to produce a deep sense of desire that begged to be sated. She moaned softly and felt herself draw closer to the bed. Spike and Anita were busy but the long-haired man smiled gently and took her face in his hands.

"I'm Nathaniel," he said softly. Nathaniel had the loveliest violet eyes and a lithe body that begged for Dawn's touch.

"Dawn," she answered, not entirely focused on what was happening.

Then Nathaniel laid a searing kiss on her mouth and Dawn felt as if she would collapse. . Never before had she felt anything like this. The great sense of desire made her quiver and moan. Gathering her up in his arms, Nathaniel leaned back against the headboard with Dawn straddling him as they continued kissing.

A part of her knew this was strange. After all, they had just met. But everything else screamed that this was okay, that it was right. She caressed his smooth skin, from his shoulder blades to his lower back, just above his bikini briefs. Nathaniel's hands flitted underneath her shirt until he teasingly began to raise it.

But he paused in this advancement at the sound of a roaring battle cry.

* * *

Spike felt blissful as the power of the ardeur swam over him. Anita was on top of him as she trailed kisses down his chest. But something at the back of his head still nagged him… What was it?

His head turned to the side and he saw Nathaniel with a girl straddling him. As she turned for Nathaniel to take off her shirt, he saw her face.

Dawn.

So caught up, he had barely noticed her arrival earlier. The damn ardeur was like a drug and its effect was the strongest type of drug to affect a vampire.

But here was Dawn, -- his Nibblet.,

And she was being taken advantage of by this long-haired poof that Spike didn't bloody like to begin with!!

Spike roared ferociously as he tossed Anita to the floor and flung himself at Nathaniel.

"Don't touch her," he growled, his fury overriding and cancelling the effects of the ardeur.

"What?" asked the dazed wereleopard an instant before Spike's fist connected with his mouth. His mouth that dared to touch Dawn. It was one thing for him to be affected by Anita's magic, another thing entirely for an innocent one like his Nibblet.

Nathaniel snarled and swiped at him. Spike grabbed the knife that Anita had begun keeping underneath a pillow to slash at his face. Nathaniel twisted his neck so Spike missed his face but caught his hair.

A maniacal smile grew on his face as he thought about the bloke's sodding girly hair. Spike drew the knife all the way through until it cut all of it off, right above the shoulders.

"My hair!" Nathaniel cried.

"Spike! What are you doing?" Spike heard Anita scream. Then he also heard the sound of a kick connecting and figured Nibblet was getting into some rowdiness as well.

Therefore, Spike allowed himself to focus on Nathaniel. The boy got in a lucky punch but Spike grabbed his hair, twisted it around his fist, and began strangling him with it. Nathaniel gasped and struggled, his legs comically kicking out.

* * *

Once Spike had grabbed Nathaniel, Dawn had sat back on the bed in shock. It felt like she was quickly sobering up and the effects of whatever had created Porn-O Dawnie were wearing off.

Anita Blake stood up from the floor with a surprised look as Dawn glared at her.

"You," she spat. "What kind of magic are you pulling to turn people into a porn star?"

"It is the ardeur. She is like a succubus," said Andrew in a shaky voice. Dawn peeked over at him and then looked away quickly.

When she got home, she was going to drink a *_lot_* of alcohol. A LOT. Because erasing naked Andrew from her visual memory was a top priority- right after leaving this hell hole and rescuing Spike.

Dawn slid to the edge of the bed and stood up.

"Who the hell do you think you are to keep Spike prisoner here?" she said scornfully.

"And just who the hell are you?" Anita demanded with a sneer. "Like I have to answer to you."

Ok, that was it. This bitch was going DOWN!!!

"Yeah, Jenna Jameson, you do," Dawn responded as she drew on all of her knowledge from training with Buffy and the others to deliver a powerful punch that cracked Anita's cheekbone.

Anita stilled and glowered at Dawn through strands of curly black hair that covered her face. "So you wanna play in the big leagues, do ya?"

Dawn barely saw it coming, but Anita delivered a swift uppercut and side-punch that rocketed her backwards.

"Please, you call that a punch?" Dawn sneered back at the skanky Spike-stealing bitch. "I've been slaying vampires for years. You punch like grandma."

Dawn dodged another punch but a kick connected with her chest. Dammit, she wished she had slayer powers. Sure, Dawn could use magic. But she felt in her heart that the woman in front of her was responsible for Spike being here and Dawn *really* wanted to physically show her appreciation.

Anita laughed. "You think you're special? *_I'm_* the one that has been slaying vampires for years."

Dawn couldn't help but snicker as she thought about the files Andrew had dug up on her.

"Slaying? More like *_laying_* vampires for years!" she quipped and took that opportunity to bitch slap Anita Blake right across her mouth.

The petite woman staggered backwards. Her eyes grew big as she shouted, "Spike! What are you doing?"

Dawn took advantage of her distraction as another opportunity to deliver a front kick that had Anita grunt as she fell. Anita's leg lashed out in response and Dawn fell to the floor as well.

"Spike! You will stop hurting Nathaniel right this instant! And grab this girl while I grab my gun! That is a direct order!"

She scoffed. "Yeah right, like Spike is gonna be your bitch. Whatever, lady. Obviously you do *_not_* know William the Bloody."

Anita gave her a cold smile. "That's what you think."

Dawn jolted as she felt Spike's arms wrap around her. "Damn," she sighed dejectedly.

Wong again – this whole situation was getting to be a real pain in the ass!

* * *

**A/N:**

My personal favorite parts in this chapter included Spike slashing off Nathaniel's creepy girl hair, Dawn giving Anita the smack down, and Valentina being smooshed! … Yours?

So…

-Good guesses on Giles' mystery man! You'll have to wait a bit longer to see who it is!

-Dawn & Andrew are captured- Again!- and me thinks there'll be some good 'ol fashioned Q&A time with Anita and JC (Let me know if you have suggestions on how you'd like that to go ;)

-A NEW Triumvirate? Oh heaven help Spike! Or will it be Nathaniel & Anita who'll be needing the help?

-HMM… Why would Buffy be nervous about Richard telling her about the big explosion?

-And what do you think Richard will end up doing? …

Thanks for reading everyone!

**Notes:**

SpinelessPunster- gave the idea for the rat spell- thanks!

Xeelia- You gave me the idea of knocking off Valentina! Muchas gracias!

KyrissDraconis- Sorry, but the hair HAD to go!

*In reference to Valentina's age of 5 or 8... That is a poke at Laurell K. Hamilton's poor writing skills and/or inability to have a good proofer. In her first appearance (Cerulean Sins) she is said to be 8 and in Danse Macabre she is said to be 5.

(.com/page/Valentina)

* For some reason in fanfic people like to have Dawn & Nathaniel be related… So I found my scene extra amusing ;)

* The Nutcracker cartoon with the creepy rats, as said by Andrew and Dawn, comes from (I'm almost positive this is the one I saw as a kid that scared the bejesus out of me): .com/title/tt1119146/ 


	8. A Wicked Good Time

Chapter 8: A Wicked Good Time

A/N:

**An amazing amount of thanks to Greywizard for being my beta. As always, he's been immensely helpful with his contributions & support. Thank you!**

* * *

Buffy basked in her anger as she slammed open the hotel room door and glared at the startled faces of Xander, Willow, Faith, and Giles.

"What part of reconnaissance mission did you guys not understand?" she demanded as she slammed the door shut behind her and stalked to the polished oak table where everyone was sitting.

"I was getting this close," she held her index and middle finger right next to each other, "to allying up with one of Anita's power bases and now that might not happen because he's pissed that we struck first. Not to mention, now we have to rescue *both* Andrew and Spike." Buffy remained standing with her arms crossed and glared at her friends as she waited for an explanation.

Faith made the first move by standing up and holding her palm against her chest. "Yo, B, it's my bad."

Buffy raised her eyebrow archly. Even though Faith had really pulled a 180 from her former Mistress of Madness days in Sunnydale, Buffy could still be surprised when she actually took responsibility for something. She gestured for her slayer sister to continue.

"Okay, it was like this. I was getting real close to seducing Jean-Claude's pomme de sang and getting into their secret hidey-place, when I saw this way old vamp definitely pulling a mind rape and sucking on an unsuspecting girl. What was I supposed to do?" she said in a blended tone of defensiveness and pleading.

"I dunno, Faith," Buffy responded as she threw her arms up in the air. "How about not making a huge scene when we're wanted criminals and are on a freaking secret mission?

"Dammit!," she sighed angrily. "You know better than that! You were in charge and because of you, Andrew is captured and they know we're coming after them." It felt good to relinquish some of her anger that had been brewing irrationally since her vision - even if a small part of her admitted it wasn't fair to direct it towards her friend.

"Hey," Xander interjected as he raised a hand that held a bag o Skittles. "I support Faith on this; she couldn't just let the vamp have a free lunch like the world is his blood bank. It sucks what happened, but we'll deal. We always do."

She pursed her lips. "Yeah, well if *I* was there, this wouldn't have happened," she said haughtily.

Faith gnawed on her lower lip in an attempt to maintain her cool and not bite back, mostly thanks to lessons learned in her anger management classes.

Giles cleaned his glasses and readjusted them. "The truth of the matter is, you were not there, Buffy, and you made it very clear you did not want to head into the Vampire District today."

Buffy's shoulders hunched up in a clear sign of defensiveness.

"I thought it was important for the Ulfric to meet me as the Commander-in-Chief," she said, possibly somewhat defensively. "These shifters are all about dominance and I knew he would respond better to me than anyone else."

Moving the ice pack from her head, Willow gave Buffy a penetrating look. "Really, Buff? Are you sure it's not because you're feeling skittish about seeing Spike again?"

Having her four friends stare at her made her feel a moment of déjà vu – flashing back to the days and weeks preceding their final Sunnydale battle where people were attacking her relationship with Spike left and right. Enough time had passed that she had almost forgotten what it had felt like to be at odds with those she loved - all because of her complicated feelings for a certain ensouled vampire.

'No,' she thought as she shook herself mentally. 'It's not like that anymore. They're just trying to be good, but intrusive, friends.'

Sighing deeply, Buffy slid into the spare chair.

"I'm sorry, Faith," she said, shaking her head with a combination of frustration and exasperation. "Listen, I know you just did what you had to do. We'll just have to work things out. Hopefully, Richard will choose to help us and we get back Andrew and Spike without too much trouble."

"It's cool, B," Faith said with a shrug as she reclaimed her seat. Then she gave a wicked smile. "Besides, I saw you pop a Midol this morning; I figured you were just being a PMS-ing bitch."

A smile crept onto her face. "As opposed to just a bitch?"

Faith laughed and Buffy grabbed a couple of Skittles and whipped them at Faith, who used her mighty Slayer reflexes to move quickly out of the way.

Buffy next turned to Willow, who sat next to her. "And, Will, regarding the Spike thing, maybe, just *_maybe_*, there's a bit of truth to that. I've thought the guy was dead for five years and it's kind of freaky to think he's somewhere in this city."

She saw Giles starting to clean his glasses out of the corner of her eye and turned to him as well. "And Giles? Don't do that," she said with a gesture towards his glasses. "Don't be worried about how I feel about Spike, okay? I'm here because he died in the service of the destroying the Hellmouth and we owe it to him to make sure he's okay.

"Which," she added in a hard tone, "he's not." She then proceeded to tell them everything she had learned from Richard.

When she was finished, Faith whistled and said in a self-congratulatory tone, "Da-amn. I took out a vamp who was part of a triumvirate?!. That's at least 50 points for me right there."

A worried expression flitted across Willow's face. "Will? What's up?" asked Buffy.

"If Richard agrees to what you offered, that's going to be some pretty major magic. Of course, if Anita plays hardball, it will probably help us, but I'm not 100% sure I can pull something like that off."

Xander rubbed her hand reassuringly. "Of course you can. You're like a combination between Glenda the Good Witch and Luke Skywalker. You can do anything." Willow laughed and gave him a warm smile for the reassurance.

"After speaking with my contact, I think I know of someone who can help you as well, Willow. Between the three of us, we can do it if need be," Giles offered.

Willow opened her mouth to respond when both Buffy and Faith sat straight up in their chairs like a dog on alert and gazed warily at the door. Giles' forehead wrinkled in confusion, but Buffy's raised finger made him forgo speech. Simultaneously, Buffy and Faith stood and silently grabbed the closest weapons, a crossbow for Buffy and a sword for Faith.

Before they could proceed further, an ominous knock sounded at the door.

* * *

Spike looked sullenly at the bound forms of Andrew and Dawn. That blazing control freak had forced him to do her dirty work and now they were in a smaller meeting room underneath the Circus of the Damned. The two captives were seated on a black leather couch facing their interrogators. Both of them were passed out because Anita had smacked both of them hard enough to knock them out, once Spike had captured them. Jean-Claude viewed them serenely from a high-backed chair while the extremely pissed off Anita sat in a leather chair cracking her knuckles.

His mood was dark as he stood there in silence. His damn link of subservience to Anita made it impossible for him to disobey her direct orders. In the very beginning of their bond, she said that he was not to harm her or Jean-Claude and now, as much as he wanted to wring the tart's neck, he simply couldn't. Nor could he prevent himself from tying up Andrew and his Nibblet.

"Wake them," said Jean-Claude in a bored tone.

"Listen here, fancy-pants. I don't have to listen to your bloody orders, so why don't you view another episode of 'Queer Eye for the Straight Guy' while we wait for them to wake on their own?" he said with a sneer. Although he feigned a tough outer shell, inside he dreaded what Jean-Claude might do to them, once they awoke. If he found out they were affiliated with the Slayers, he would likely have them killed.

Jean-Claude chortled. "I suppose then you want me to wake them? I wonder if they will wake up if I thrust my teeth into their neck?"

Anita smirked silently. Normally, she would disapprove of Jean-Claude feeding off an unwilling human, but the boy was associated with Damian's murderer and the girl had broken her cheekbone; Anita wouldn't cry over some spilled blood today.

Spike growled and gently shook the two humans to rouse them. He thought being an intangible ghost was annoying; this existence of slavery was far worse, though. Is this the life the Powers That Be intended to reward him with for his sacrifice?

"Go away, mommy," Andrew moaned in his sleep as he pulled away from Spike's hand.

"Oh bloody hell," he breathed under his breath. "Andrew! Get the hell up!"

Andrew jumped and Dawn's eyes opened blearily at hearing Spike's voice.

"Good evening," Jean-Claude said courteously. "How are you two feeling today?"

"Um…" Andrew trailed off as his eyes focused on Jean-Claude's face.

Dawn's eyes widened with surprise at her circumstances and then they hardened upon seeing her two captors.

"Well, I feel like I got knocked out by some two-bit hootchie mama," she sneered.

Spike was there to capture Anita's wrist before she could smack the smile off Dawn's face.

"Spike!" Anita warned.

Spike was reluctant to let them know how much Nibblet meant to him; who knows how Jean-Claude could use that against them. Instead, he had to use a variation of the truth to explain himself.

"Anita, you smack her anymore and you might be knocking her unconscious again. Might be best to leave her alone, eh, luv?"

Yanking her wrist out of his hand, she glared at him. "And just what do you care?"

"Yes Spike," Jean-Claude mused as his eyes fixed on Spike's face. "Why do you care?"

* * *

Buffy motioned silently as everyone took up position.

She and Faith could each feel that the presence behind the door was not necessarily a friendly one. Faith neared the door while Buffy kept her crossbow trained on the door. Giles and Xander both stood and grabbed swords, while Willow kept her hands ready for some magic, in a manner similar to jazz hands.

"Who is it?" Faith called roughly.

"I am Wicked," called the first smooth voice.

"And I am Truth," called a second similar voice.

"The Wicked Truth," Giles murmured in fascination. He looked up and explained, "Two quite infamous – and deadly - vampire warriors."

"Right, yeah, definitely feel like inviting these guys in," Buffy scoffed.

"We are here with a message from the Master of the City, Jean-Claude. We are not here to cause harm to anyone," spoke Truth.

"Uh-huh. We invite you in and then we just play Go Fish or something?" Faith grimaced; did Jean-Claude's people really think they were stupid?

"In all actuality, I prefer Rummy myself," offered Wicked.

"You have our word that we will not violate your hospitality," said Truth.

"And we will let you know how you can get your annoying talkative friend back," stated Wicked.

The four Scoobies looked at each other in contemplation for a moment. Finally, Buffy shrugged and Faith opened the door.

Standing before them were two excellent specimens of the male species and Faith didn't bother to hide her salacious grin as she eyed them. Tall and broad-shouldered, they both wore designer suits that clung to their bodies.

"Greetings," began the blond-haired vampire. "I am Wicked."

"I am Truth," said the dark-haired vampire with a partial beard as he smiled in Faith's direction. "We were told that a slayer killed Damian. I assume you are the brunette beauty that Jason spoke of?"

Faith nodded. "That's right. You want revenge for killing your buddy?"

The brother both shrugged nonchalantly.

"While we served in the same Kiss, Damian was no friend of ours," said Wicked, who then closed his eyes and breathed in deeply. He gave Buffy a piercing look. "I take it you are a slayer, as well?"

Buffy shifted uncomfortably. She didn't enjoy being observed so closely by these random vampire warriors.

"Yes, I am," she answered simply. No need to give these guys too much information, after all.

Wicked turned and seemed to communicate silently with his brother before they turned back to face them.

"My brother and I do not pay much attention to vampire politics, but we recognize you now. We had no idea that St. Louis was being visited by Buffy Summers, the Commander-In-Chief of the Slayer Army, along with her second in command, Faith, and such distinguished associates." The brothers surprised the Scoobies by pressing their right palm against their heart and leaning forward slightly into a bow.

"We are both pleased and honored to be in the presence of two of the mightiest warriors the world has seen. Many tales have been told of your ferociousness on the battle field," said Truth.

Buffy gave them a wary look. "Yeah, um, thanks." She had made peace with her inner slayer long ago and knew what she was like in battle, but she was confused that their potential enemies were flattering them.

"Isn't it a bit strange for vampires to appreciate a slayer's battle skills?" asked Faith with a doubtful look.

Truth's eyes roved over her slowly and he grinned as he reached her face.

"She is much like Charlotte, isn't she, brother? Ah, I knew this would be an enjoyable mission."

"Indeed, the spitting image," agreed Wicked.

"Yeah, I'll spit fire if you both don't start explaining yourselves," said an annoyed Faith.

"Forgive us," said Truth with a smile. "We knew a slayer long ago and you seem very much like her."

"Let me guess, you killed her?" growled Xander. He really hated damn vampires who were obsessed with slayers.

Wicked shook his head. "Not at all. Charlotte was a friend to us and assisted us in tracking and hunting members of our line who had gone rogue." His eyes glinted with humor and he winked at Faith. "And occasionally, she was more than a friend as well."

Buffy's nose crinkled in confusion; that had not been the story she had expected.

"As interesting as that is, why the hell are you here?"

"Our Master wishes to invite you to meet him at the Circus of the Damned to negotiate for your friend that we captured. He would like you to arrive in three hours, at 2:00 A.M.," informed Truth.

"Well, gee, I did have watching infomercials scheduled into my agenda, but I guess I can make some time to walk into a *trap*." Buffy rolled her eyes. "Do you really think we are going to just walk in to your Master's lair?"

They shrugged again. "Yes, if you want to see your companion again. And you will have to surrender your weapons, of course. In return, our Master has promised safe passage in and out of the Circus. He merely wants to talk and know why you are here."

Buffy glanced at the others and then gave the vampire warriors a hard look.

"No dice. We don' trust you any further than we can throw you-"

"How far would that be? By all means, I would enjoy having you wrap your arms around me and try," interrupted Wicked with a smirk.

"Don't tempt me," Buffy answered testily.

"Yes, please don't. She most definitely doesn't need any more vampires," Xander observed dryly.

Buffy shot him a dirty look before speaking again.

"We'll meet up in a neutral territory," she said. "There will be five of us and Jean-Claude can choose four of his people to accompany him."

Wicked sighed. "We will convey that message." Quickly, he dialed a number and expressed Buffy's counter offer. He grimaced as he heard the reply and shut the phone.

"He will only abide by the original offer of meeting. He says since your lieutenant killed an important member of his Kiss, then he gets to choose the location and arrange the details. Jean-Claude also said you are lucky he has not killed your friend yet, since he has every right to, as it is."

Her face twisted with aggravation as Buffy turned to the others. "Well?"

Xander shrugged. "We faced a Hell God, so I'm not really all that worried about these guys."

"I believe we can make that work," said Giles. His eyes had the faraway look that came when his Thinking Cap was on.

Willow smiled tentatively; she was not worried about the weapons ban at all. It was nice being a witch. "Go ahead."

Faith laughed.

"Please," she smirked. "I would love it if things got out of hand. It's been a while since we've taken on any old vamps. The newbies aren't really much of a challenge. You know I'm always down for a fight." While she made the last statement, Faith gave the Wicked Truth a sweet smile that was laced with danger.

"Fine," said Buffy. "Tell that Jean-Claude Van Damme dude we'll be there at 2:00 A.M."

The brothers bowed once more.

"We will inform him. See you soon," said Wicked with a smile.

"Very soon," added Truth as they turned and left.

Once the door was locked, the Scoobies began conversing.

"Plan?" asked a hopeful Xander.

"I need to make a few calls," said Giles as he walked towards his bedroom

"I need to make one. too," Buffy called as she made her way to her room.

"I'll gather some spell ingredients I'll probably need," said Willow as she walked to her suitcase.

Xander looked at Faith expectantly.

"What?" she asked, surprised. "I'm not a planner, I'm a Slayer. Big difference."

"Guess I'll gather weapons, then," Xander decided.

"Excellent. While you are all doing that, I'm going to settle in to watch some Conan before those damn NBC bastards kick him off," Faith declared as she settled comfortably into the plush leather couch and put her feet up on the coffee table.

* * *

**A/N:**

Dearest readers, we are getting closer to the big shindig!

-Definitely wrote this ***BEFORE*** the Conan/NBC announcement- Boo! But I thought Faith would be a Conan fan, she has the same type of humor as Triumph the Insult Comic Dog anyways ;)

-I admit it: I am a sucker for the Wicked Truth. I mean, they are not completely tainted by Anita and they are hard-core BAMFs. So I had to feature them some more

-Please review! I'm like Tyone Biggums & your reviews are my crack!

_(lol… yeah… Its late… I'm kinda slap happy… ;)_

--Now, mind you, I am still taking recommendations on character deaths & redemptions! I can't promise to please everyone, but I am taking your votes into account! So far here are the votes:

**Kill:**

Richard-4 votes

JC-4 votes

Nacissus-4 votes

Anita- 1 vote

Malcolm-1

Sylvie- 1 vote

Caleb-1 vote

Noah-1 vote

ALL AB peeps: 2 votes

**Redeem:**

Asher-5 votes

Anita:4 votes (but everyone wanted her to get really hurt and/or lose powers)

Richard- 3 votes

Micah-1 vote

Nathaniel-1 vote

**Already Dead:**

Damian (staked)

Valentina (ratted and squashed)

Nathaniel's creepy hair (thank you over-protective Spike!)


	9. You Sit On a Throne of Lies!

**Chapter 9:**

Spike's face was as still as stone as the eyes of Jean-Claude, Anita, Andrew, and Dawn turned to him. His mind pondered on how to best answer Jean-Claude's question.

If he denied knowing them, then it might make it harder for Jean-Claude to link them to the Slayers. Of course, if he stated admitted their relationship, he may be able to give them protection. Spike has always been a gambling man, so he was willing to take his chances.

"Why do I care?" he restated. "I care because I know them from my life, before. Neither of you are allowed to touch them. I am officially declaring them under my protection, so sod off, mate."

Dawn and Andrew grinned happily; Spike felt the guilt from not acknowledging her earlier lift from his shoulders.

"You intend to put these two humans under your protection?" Jean-Claude looked amused as he studied Spike and reclined in his chair.

"Yes," Spike answered with a note of finality.

Anita's eyes narrowed at Spike as expressions of anger and concern flitted across her face.

"When did you start thinking that you're all big and bad, Spike?" she asked with a cruel smile. "When did you start thinking that you could order *us* around?"

Something snapped within Spike's core.

Six months had passed since he came back. Being stuck tied to Anita Blake as a ghost had been alright as non-corporeal gigs went -- He had enjoyed haunting everyone in the palace of poofs and was a bit relieved to not be trapped in some hell dimension. Then a few months ago, Anita had somehow made him flesh and blood and he had endured her orders; he didn't bloody see how to get out of it after all.

But not anymore.

Snarling, Spike flew towards Anita and grabbed her arms. "When did I start thinking I was all big and bad? I've *been* the Big Bad, bitch." Her eyes widened in terror as soon as she realized she had an angry vampire pinning her. She didn't have to be afraid for long, because Jean-Claude threw Spike one-handed against the wall. Spike jumped to his feet and growled as he raised his arms to incinerate that lacey-shirted prat. He could feel the power crackling within him and smiled with great satisfaction as he aimed at Jean-Claude.

Except that blinding pain made his knees buckle and he screamed. Jean-Claude roughly yanked him to his feet and sneered. "You forget yourself, Spike. _Ma Petite _ordered you long ago not to bring harm to me. Perhaps you have remembered your old ways, but you are still bound to her."

Rage coursed through Spike. "Trust me, mate. Once Anita's witchcraft wears off, I'll wear your insides as a hat."

Jean-Claude laughed softly. "Ma Petite? Perhaps Spike should be made more comfortable?" he suggested with a raised brow.

"Sit down next to your friends, Spike. And get shut up," Anita ordered coldly.

Spike helplessly jerked himself to the sofa and sat down next to Dawn, all the while glaring at his mistress. Anita moved to stand in front of Andrew and grasped his chin roughly to force him to look at her.

"Who sent you?" she demanded. "Who was the bitch that killed Damian?"

"I don't know," he squeaked. "Who's Damian?"

"Hmm, let's see. Tall, red-haired, your friend staked him?" Anita slapped him. "Don't play stupid with me."

Spike rolled his eyes. "Simmer down, Zombie Queen. Andrew can't help but play stupid, it's not his fault."

Andrew beamed at Spike. "Aw, thanks, Spike. That's really sweet. Can I just say how nice it is to see you again?"

Jerking her shoulder into him, Dawn hissed, "Be quiet, Andrew!"

"Andrew, Andrew," Anita said soothingly. Her dominant side caught a whiff of Andrew's weakness and she was ready to pounce. "Listen, all I want to know is who that was and what you people are doing here."

"I'm no Lando Calrission !" he declared bravely. "I shall not sell out my friends."

"Who is this Lando?" asked a puzzled Jean-Claude.

Andrew cleared his throat. "Lando Calrission was a dear friend of Han Solo's; actually he was the original owner of Han's ship, the Millennium Falcon, until he lost it in a bet, until he sold him out to Darth Vader. Han, Chewie, and Leia came to Cloud City and Lando was all like 'hey guys, good to see you, welcome, hey Leia, what up sexy lady' and they were all like 'cool, what's up.' And then he invited them to a delicious brunch when whoa! Darth Vader was just chilling there and totally captured them. Which was so not cool, because Lando sold them out just so that way-"

"Enough," interrupted Jean-Claude with a wave of his hand. "They were right about you -- you are rather annoying."

Andrew shrugged sheepishly and Dawn bit back a smile.

"Way to come to a conclusion, Captain Obvious," she said smarmily.

"It's about the only thing he can do around here, what with Anita carrying his balls around in her purse like this season's newest accessory," Spike joked with a devilish grin.

"I am the Master of the City, dammit. You will show respect," Jean-Claude stated forcefully. Spike just snorted in response.

"Jean-Claude, what would a slayer be doing here, anyways?" Anita gave Jean-Claude a questioning look. "They're a terrorist group and banned from the States. Why would they be in St. Louis?"

"A terrorist group?" Dawn said disdainfully. "That is a load of bullshit cooked up by the Vampire Council! You actually believe that, Anita Blake, Ms. Vampire Executioner?"

Anita paused and gave Jean-Claude a hard look. After all, she was no fan of the Vampire Council. "What does she mean by that?"

Jean-Claude shrugged gracefully. "I do not know what she means, Ma Petite. You know that I am not closely associated with the Council, not since I escaped from Belle Morte's clutches."

"You sit on a throne of lies!" Andrew said shrilly. Judging by his surprised expression, those words had come out louder than he had intended. He shivered slightly at the furious gleam in Jean-Claude's eyes.

"What do you mean by that?" Anita asked.

"What he meant by that is that your lover boy knows exactly what went on with the Vampire Council cock and bull story," Dawn snapped, more that a little put out by this idiot bitch's attitude. "A little over five years ago, the world went from having one slayer to hundreds. His 'li'l Vampire Council freaked out that the slayers were going to wipe them off this earth, so they came out of the coffin and smeared the Slayers." Dawn paused and took a deep breath to make up from speaking so quickly.

The silence was deafening for several minutes. Finally Anita asked, "So the Slayers did not do those terrorist attacks?"

"They would never hurt an innocent. They fight on the side of Good. They fight the evil vampires who use their powers to manipulate humans to steal blood, hurt, or kill them," answered Andrew, a bit pontifically.

Face wrinkled with concern, Anita turned to her lover. "Jean-Claude, is this true? The Vampire Council did this? You knew this? You knew that the government has been imprisoning innocent girls who are just trying to do their job?"

"Innocent girls?" Jean-Claude laughed. "One of these innocent girls murdered Damian, in cold blood! You almost died in the process! You wish to defend them?"

"Uh, technically, it was not in cold blood. We only went to Guilty Pleasures to look for Spike. It was your friend who was using his powers to illegally bite a human. Faith had to step in. Wouldn't you have done the same?" said a rather logical Andrew.

Anita sighed deeply and sat back down.

She'd figured out long ago that the world wasn't all black and white. But tonight's revelations were revealing even more shades of gray than she cared to know. She used to hear about the mythical s Vampire Slayer back when Manny taught her how to hunt vampires. At the time, she had always wished she had been a slayer; it sure would have made hunting easier. When the Slayers had come out in full force, she had cheered -- happy to see every last undead sob S.O.B. staked.

Of course, her thoughts on that had changed a lot in the last couple years. She had definitely met some evil vampires (like Vittorio), but there were many who were her lovers, her friends; people she cared for deeply. Maybe Damian had been in the wrong, but maybe not. Thanks to that Faith bitch, though, en she would never really know.

This was a grey area, all right. No question about that at all.

"So you all came here for Spike?" Anita gave him an appraising look. Who would have thought the snarky Englishman would incite such loyalty?

"Yes, that's all we want," Dawn stated. "We came here for Spike. Now that we have him, we'll be on our way."

Jean-Claude laughed scornfully. "Perhaps you did not realize, but you two are tied up. Spike is ours. He's a valuable asset to our organization and will not be leaving here."

Spike grunted. "Listen, bloke, I'm sick of being here and bloody tired of the both you. I'll be taking off. If you want to set someone on fire, buy some kerosene and a Zippo."

The Wicked Truth walked into the room before Jean-Claude could respond.

"They will arrive at 2:00 A.M. as you wished. There are five of them total. The Commander-In-Chief of the Slayer Army, Buffy Summers, her second-in-command Faith, an old man, a one-eyed man, and another girl who was not a slayer."

"Excellent. Call Richard to bring his wolves to help guard and enlist others,." Jean-Claude directed. The brothers nodded and left the room.

The brothers nodded and left the room.

"Spike, with all the politics of our world, you know I am in need of great warriors. Now that Anita has formed a triumvirate with you and Andrew Nathaniel, you especially cannot leave. If you do, all three of you will suffer, because you must learn how to control your new powers together." He saw Anita looking deep in thought and grabbed her hand. "

You know this is true, Ma Petite."

"And what do you intend to do with Buffy and the others?" Dawn asked nervously. She did not like the idea of Jean-Claude of gathering a bunch of weres before her sister and the others came.

An evil smile slid over his face.

"They intruded into my territory and killed an important member of my Kiss. They will have to pay a penalty. Besides, I have been hearing about the Slayers Buffy and Faith for many years. It will be a pleasure to capture them."

Spike jerked but due to Anita's orders he couldn't get up.

"You're a right bastard, you know that, you bleedin' ponce? You better not touch a hair on her head -- or any of them! I won't be Anita's whipping boy forever and the day that stops, I'll carve your dead heart out with a spoon!"

Giving him a cold look, Jean-Claude replied,. "The day you are no longer Anita's whipping boy will be the day when re I kill you, Spike."

* * *

A couple hours later the Scoobies rolled into a parking lot near the Circus of the Damned.

Faith killed the engine and looked at Giles in the passenger seat. "How much longer?"

"Erm, we have about ten minutes until the deadline." Giles sighed. "Unfortunately, with such short notice, my contact won't be able to arrive for a while longer."

Buffy finished her tenth phone conversation in the last three hours with a triumphant "Yes!"

"Good news?" asked Xander.

"The best," she answered cheerfully. "Will? How are you feeling?"

"Well, I know we're out of time, so I'll have to make it work," Willow replied. "But I wish I had longer to work on the spells. With Giles' help and that other person he knows, we will should hopefully have enough power to pull it off."

Willow shrugged and then smiled. "Should be fun, at any rate. I haven't had a chance to do big magics in a long time!"

They Everyone laughed at her enthusiasm.

"Alright-y then, you funky party weasels ready to make some new friends?" joked Xander with a twirl of his finger.

Buffy opened her car door.

"Okay, guys. Let's kick some ass."


	10. Anita Blake & Her Magical AHEM

**Chapter 10: Anita Blake and Her Magical… *Ahem***

**A/N: **

Once again, many thanks to _Greywizard _for beta-ing!

A sincere thank you to _Persefone _and _SpinelessPunster _for recommending this story~ That is quite the compliment, thank you :D

Also, I really cannot believe how many people have reviewed and complimented this story. I'm very appreciative of you all. I NEVER expected to have so many people read this. Thank you to the following people for reviewing:

_Aeryn • Alexis • amie • anouk • AzrielSunHawk • bastur • batzulger • beq • blueyez • CarmenLindsay • Carojen • cathain • celticjenn • CousinMary • deathsjennesa • dharkcharlotte • Discord • Dragonwolftiger • ferball • FireWolfe • GarnetAvi • GothTroubleMaker • Greywizard • immortalsilence • JasonBarnett • Kaleidofox • Killiara • KWJordan • KyrissDraconis • KzintiKiller • lmarie • londeaux • MarbleGlove • mmooch • murr • mytryk • namegoeshere • Neqs • Neverwillmini • Persefone • POTENTIALlyAwesome • puckish • punzl • RoseGoddess • Ryn • SassyFrass • saturnssailor • Serenity • shadowslayers • skynetgol • SlayerandWereLeopard • slmncpm • slytherinwithwings • SpinelessPunster • spk • superbrutal • Tempi • Valkyrie • vedranempress • Vilkath • VivianCaidin • war • whogives • Wingwyrm • wizathogwarts • Wormbait • Xeelia_

**LAST BUT NOT LEAST**… I dedicate this chapter to Laurell K. Hamilton and her latest Anita novel ('Flirt') that debuted today… Where she picks up even more damn freaking men (Like for F$%ing real????)… Luckily, one of our Scoobies will address that *whew* Trust me, this book has increased my dedication to razing St. Louis to the ground. And then salting it. And having Paris Hilton do a off-key concert there.

….And now… What you've all been waiting for… The true fun begins!

* * *

His piercing blue eyes scanned the prisoner cell in a cool and collected manner. The cell that the witch and her Watcher friend escaped from was empty except for the flattened smear of a rat corpse with a detached head, and a pool of dried blood. "Asher," he called in a voice deadened with rage. "Where is Valentina? I am most curious to discover how she allowed two mortals to escape her deadly arms."

Like lightning, Asher was suddenly beside him. "She has not been seen, Jean-Claude. Can you not feel her?"

Jean-Claude stilled and closed his eyes; even though he suspected the answer lay before him. His mind traveled metaphysically down the links to all members of his Kiss but he could not feel her presence. Deftly he knelt down and sniffed the rat while Asher gave him a quizzical look. He jumped back in clear disgust, a sneer evident on his face.

Asher gripped his bicep. "Jean-Claude?" his voice begged for an answer.

"That *_witch_*," he spat out, " and her friends will pay. Valentina may have been horrid at times but she was under *_my_* authority and protection," he growled.

Asher eyed the rat again and comprehension dawned in his eyes. His lips curled into a grimace and he rubbed his lover's back reassuringly. "What do you wish to do?"

He was answered only by a low, ominous chuckle.

* * *

Jean-Claude found Anita sitting in his bedroom and he admired her for a moment. So lost was she in thought that she jumped slightly when he said, "_Ma Petite_?"

"Jean-Claude! Don't sneak up on me like that. And stop calling me _Ma Petite_."

He gave her a hurt look. "It has been a long time since you asked me not to call you that. Is all well, _Ma Petite_?" Sitting beside her on the bed, he grasped her hand gently.

Eyes evading his own, she turned slightly to focus on a Renaissance painting hung on the wall. She broke the silence after a moment.

"Do you know that at one time I wished I was a Slayer? Back when Manny told me that they really existed, contrary to what my Preternatural Studies professors said."

He sighed silently. Jean-Claude had a feeling that Anita was going to be difficult tonight, and he needed her focused on following his direction.

"_Non_, _Ma Petite_. I did not."

"You know, I used to live for killing your kind. I had wished that I had been empowered like the slayers; it would have made hunting vampires so much easier. When their numbers multiplied and the news reported on their activities, I always cheered them on. I would think to myself, 'Way to go, girls!'." She turned her dark brown eyes on him.

"And then I met you."

A smile slid its way upwards on his face. "And then you met me."

Anita smirked. "And I still wanted to kill you and every other vampire."

"You wound me, _Ma Petite_," he said dryly.

Soft laughter slid from her lips. "Well, I only wanted to kill you until I fell in love with you. But that changed everything."

Jean-Claude stilled. "Do you have regrets?"

She seemed to mull that over. "Yes and no."

Jean-Claude winced; that 'no' penetrated his heart.

Anita took notice and gave him a soft kiss. "I love you. But sometimes, I can't help but wonder if I've made some mistakes. I went from killing the monsters to sleeping with them." She paused. "And maybe I've become one along the way."

Jean-Claude hushed her and pulled her into a tight embrace. "Never say that, _Ma Petite_. You are perfect and embody everything I love about this world. "

With her face pressed against his chest, she could only reply with a muffled, "Thank you."

They took comfort in each other's arms for some time. Finally, Anita pulled away and gazed in Jean-Claude's blue eyes. "Is everything prepared for the arrival of the slayers?"

Giving her a confident smile, he replied, "Yes. They should be here soon. Are you comfortable with our plans?"

Anita squared her shoulders and gave him a steady stare.

"I've been thinking about what that witch said earlier and what you told me," she said. "But it comes down to the fact that I'm not giving Spike up, not with his powers and especially not now with our new triumvirate. Not to mention, Damian is due his revenge on those bitches. If the Slayers think they can waltz in here and kill any of my people, they thought wrong. After tonight, we will never have to worry about them invading our territory ever again."

"Well said, _Ma Petite_." Jean-Claude smiled widely.

Perhaps tonight would go exactly as he planned, after all.

* * *

The doors to the Circus of the Damned opened just as the Scoobies approached them.

Facing them were Wicked and Truth, who smiled broadly at their presence.

"Welcome, Slayers," said Truth.

"If you could make your way this way, please," Wicked added with a gesture into the building.

"Yo, B," whispered Faith.

"Huh?" asked Buffy, whose focus was more on every detail of the building than the words of her friend.

"After seeing these two, I'm *_starting_* to understand your fascination with the naked male undead body," she said with a flirtatious smile and a raise of her eyebrow.

Buffy chuckled, and then she grimaced. "Hey! It's been a long time since I've been with a vampire," she grumbled. "Jeez."

The upstairs of the building was empty, but Buffy could head faint noises coming from somewhere. She eyed the vampire brothers suspiciously, because she thought it was odd they would lead the way with their backs to her. They must be very trusting -- or extremely confident. From what Giles had explained earlier, she assumed the latter. The Wicked Truth began descending down a flight of stairs and Buffy followed with Faith bringing up the rear.

As they reached the landing, Buffy took in the large room illuminated with soft lighting. She wasn't surprised to see so many vampires, but she was certainly surprised to see so many humans. Sniffing, she knew that they were weres based on their scent and auras, but she was surprised on the different kinds. Reaching out with her metaphysical senses, she knew there were wolves, leopards, hyenas, rats, lions and even a couple tigers present.

The Wicked Truth went to stand in the middle of the room with several other vampires. Thanks to Andrew's file photos, she recognized the others as Asher, Requiem, Byron, and London. To their right stood Richard with half a dozen wolves, including Jean-Claude's Pomme de Sang, Jason. To the left of the vampires were members of the wereleopard pard, including their Nimir-Raj, Micah, a hard-faced Caleb, and a feminine-looking man who resembled the Nathaniel from her photos except his hair was cut above his shoulders.

Wererats were placed strategically around the room, and she recalled that Andrew had said they were the paid thugs of the city. All of them were men except an Amazonian woman with blond hair. One of them, who stood next to Richard, she recognized as the Rat King Rafael. Slightly behind the vampires were several werelions, including one with bright blue hair; she thought she remembered his name was Haven. Finally, to the left of the leopards were half a dozen werehyenas. Buffy grimaced at the sight of the S&M dressing men; she had heard a lot about their leader Narcissus and none of it was positive. Currently the hyena leader was focusing his interest on Xander-- Buffy heard the kinky bastard had a thing for deformed men and she bet Narcissus liked the eye patch quite a bit.

Raising a brow, she commented lightly, "Sorry, must have mixed up the address. We were planning on a little vampire get-together, not visiting a zoo." Faith snorted and several of the attendants didn't bother to hide their amusement.

Richard approached them and his voice resonated with power as he gave her a hard look. "Per the previously agreed upon stipulations, you must discard all your weapons."

Giving him an innocent smile, she asked with raised hands, "Who, us? Come on now, do we really look like the type of people who would bring weapons even though you asked us so nicely not to?"

Richard grunted and gestured towards his wolves. "Sylvie, Shang-Da, Jamil, search them." A petite woman with short, dark hair, a very tall Asian man wearing a suit, and a black man with cornrows approached them.

Buffy was pushed roughly against the wall by Shang-Da who ran his hands over her body. His search resulted in her boot knife, and two stakes. Jamil's examination of Faith included a dagger as long as her forearm and another stake. Likewise, Giles lost several weapons of his own. No one was pleased to get their body searches.

Except perhaps Willow.

Willow appraised the approaching Sylvie and admired her lithe movements.

"Turn around," demanded the werewolf.

Smiling slyly she asked, "If I don't, do you plan on forcing me?"

Sylvie's mouth opened in surprise and then she grinned as she grabbed Willow's waist, turned her around, and pressed her against the wall. Her hands lingered here and there during the search, but she stayed away from more promiscuous territory.

Willow caught her eye and winked. "I think you missed a few places."

Sylvie bit her lip to hide a smile and gladly obeyed. After all, why not mix business with pleasure?

After Faith, Jamil moved on to search Xander. As his hands performed the search, he sniffed. There was something *_powerful_* about this man. His inner wolf told him to get away from the man -- not to draw his displeasure -- but he followed Richard's orders, anyway. When Jamil touched his backside, though, Xander jerked and shouted, "Hey! Stop that!"

Without a thought, Jamil instantly leaped backwards and cowered. He could feel the eyes of the others on him, sneering at his display of weakness, but he didn't care. The blast of power that seemed to crackle off the one-eyed man scared his inner wolf.

Footsteps sounded on the stone floor as Jean-Claude and Anita walked in. "Is the search complete?" rang out Jean-Claude's melodious voice.

"Jamil?" questioned Richard.

"Yes," he said, both his voice and his manner somewhat shaky as he went back to his Ulfric.

"Excellent," Jean-Claude said with a smile. "Welcome, Slayers. I am Jean-Claude, the Master of the City. This is my Human Servant, Anita Blake." Anita's smile was chilly at best.

"Yeah, you and thirty of your closest friends," Buffy commented coldly.

With a graceful shrug, Jean-Claude just smiled. "What can I say? I am a very popular fellow and have many friends."

"So do I, and you have two of them. Where are Andrew and Spike?" Buffy crossed her arms and glared at the vampire.

Jean-Claude smiled wickedly and looked pointedly towards Anita. "Spike!" called Anita. "Bring out our guest."

Spike carried Andrew over his shoulder. Andrew, whose hands were tied together, waved at his friends. "Hey guys! How ya doing?" He winced as Spike dropped him roughly into a chair.

Buffy's voice caught in her throat.

Somehow after all this time, Spike was standing in front of her, as solid as herself. Impulsively, she suddenly wanted to touch him; a part of her still could not believe he was here. She drank in his appearance with her eyes. So much of him looked the same -- platinum hair, black leather duster, jeans, and boots.

With a frown, she noticed something was wrong. Instead of his carefree smile or signature smirk, his features were blank.

She took a step forward. "Spike?" she called out tentatively. Looking up, he gave her pleading eyes but his features turned grim. Her temper spiked and she walked up to him, relieved that none of Jean-Claude's crew tried to stop her. Once she was within arm's length, she forced herself to speak calmly.

"So you've been back for a couple months?"

He closed his eyes and sighed dejectedly. "Yes."

She caught his eyes and let him see the pain and anger that hid in her eyes. "And you never even *_thought_* to call and mention, 'Hey Buffy! Guess what, I'm alive, after all!'"

Holding his hands up defensively, he gave her a plaintive look. "Buffy, I-"

His words were cut off by a swift punch to his cheek.

Stumbling backward, he gave her a painful look. "What was I supposed to do? I died to save the world, the *_world_*, Buffy! I saw the look in your eyes before you went, I know what you felt because of my sacrifice. If I told you I was back, that feeling would be cheapened." He paused and his voice lowered. "And I wasn't ready to deal with that."

Buffy was shaking with the adrenaline brought on by betrayal. A part of her accepted his excuse and the other part didn't give a damn. All the feelings she had been repressing were brought to the forefront of her mind at seeing him. She still didn't know if she loved him or if she didn't. But he had been a big part of her life and, at one time, he was the only one of her friends to believe in her. The embers of her anger inflamed at seeing the smirking Anita Blake standing nearby.

"You weren't ready to deal with me, or is it that you were too busy shacking up with this fang-banger?"

Anita's hand flashed to grab her gun. "Shut your mouth," she growled.

"Buffy, it was the _ardeur_- I had no choice!" he cried out in an exasperated tone.

Buffy bit her lip at Spike's words. That seemed to match up with her vision and what Andrew had informed them on the rumors of Anita's _ardeur_. But still… She didn't like it. She backed up to her friends; she did not trust all these bad guys to be close to her.

"If you please," asked a genial Jean-Claude. "Perhaps we may end this bickering and focus on what matters. That *_you_*," his tone hardened, "entered my territory without permission and killed a highly-valued member of my Kiss."

"Whoa, let's hold up here for a second," Faith said with a raise of her hands. "That damn dirty Ginger was illegally snacking on an unsuspecting girl. That's an automatic execution, anyways."

"That's what you say." Anita's words swept through the room like an arctic wind. "All we have is your side of the story. Regardless, you are unauthorized to perform any executions, that is reserved only for licensed executioners, like me. Further, as a Federal Marshall, I should be bringing all of your terrorist declared asses in to justice.

Faith shook her head with a light laugh. Nothing made her angrier than thinking about how the Vampire Council had framed the Slayers.

"Oh *_no_*, you didn't," she said with a shake of her head. "Girlfriend, you did *_not_* just say I am unauthorized to perform any executions. Hunting vampires is what the Powers That Be gifted me with and they are a much higher authority than the United States government."

"What? You think you're above the law?" Anita sneered.

"No. Do you?" Buffy threw at her in sharp tone.

"You have no idea who I am! Don't you even dare to talk to me that way," Anita took a threatening step in their direction.

Buffy gave her a superior smile. "From what I hear you're not very law-abiding for being a Federal Marshall; you're more of a killer than an officer of the law."

Anita raised her Browning Hi-Power in Buffy's direction. "You think I'm a killer? Maybe I should start living up to that more."

"Anita," Jean-Claude warned. He only called her by her first name when he was angry. "Do not make any rash decisions." Anita grimaced and reholstered the gun.

Buffy scoffed. She had no respect for someone who needed a gun to kill. It was a tool for the weak. Hand-to-hand, a sword, or even a cross-bow -- those required far more skill and physical finesse.

"Now, I've been doing some research," Jean-Claude began smoothly, "and I must say how impressed I am that we have the famed vampire slayers here, as well as the Head of the Watcher Council, your mythical one-eyed servant, and the great witch Willow. Just why exactly did you all decide to grace us mere creatures of the underworld with your presence?"

"We're here for Spike. We know he's being held against his will and we are here to claim him. Turn him over, along with Andrew and its all gravy, baby," stated Buffy blandly.

"Spike cannot leave. He is tied to Ma Petite and Nathaniel, thanks to Faith murdering a member of their previous triumvirate," Jean-Claude smirked. It always made him pleased to win.

Buffy's eyes widened in disbelief and she heard Willow groan under her breath. This meant more work for the witch. Her eyes darted to Richard before they settled on Spike. She guessed this had been news to Richard as well; if not then she was really going to be pissed.

"Well, break it," she said simply. "I'm sure it can be done."

"It cannot, not without us dying. Besides, Spike's helped us gain power. We need him here," Anita stated sternly.

"I don't give a damn! Obviously, he's tired of your trampy ass and wants to leave, so let him!" Buffy was really starting to lose her temper. "Spike, do you want to stay here?"

He scoffed. "Hell, no! I've been bloody trying to leave but I'm stuck obeying this emasculating bitch!"

"What?" shouted Anita as she turned to Spike. "I am not emasculating! Just because I am a strong, independent woman does not mean I am emasculating."

Micah stepped forward and grabbed both of her shoulders. "Shh, don't listen to him. He's only trying to make you lose focus."

"Indeed," soothed Asher. "We love you Anita, do not think about his words."

"Please," Spike said scornfully. "You jump and all these poofs ask how high, especially your leopard kitten sissy man. Beats me how you pick up all these men. It's like there should be a musical about it -- Anita Blake and Her Magical Vagina. Actually, it might be fun -- we could dress all your blokes up in tutus and have them do ballet in your bedroom."

Snickers erupted in the room as Anita's face reddened.

"You asshole," she said as she punched him. Spike just smirked, happy with her public humiliation.

"Ya know, this place is kind of a sausage fest," joked Faith with a wave of her hand. "What's with all the dudes? It's like we're backstage at a Chippendale's show."

"You seemed to like male strippers before," commented Jason with cheeky grin.

Faith blew him a kiss. "Not saying I don't like it, but you gotta admit, it is kinda weird."

"_Ma Petite _does not play nicely with others of her sex," Jean-Claude said with a loose shrug.

Buffy laughed and Anita stalked over to her. With her face only inches away, she fought the urge to growl at the slayer. Her inner animals were begging to see blood and since they were dominant, they wanted to reclaim their territory. But Anita could also feel Buffy's aura and she sensed that she made not be the most dominant female in the room. And that scared her inner animals and made her feel a bit wilder.

"Think something is funny?" she asked the slayer.

Buffy fought the urge to punch the black-haired bimbo in front of her. After all, they needed to keep stalling.

"Yeah, I do," she nodded. "I think its pretty hypocritical for a self-claimed strong, independent woman to be so afraid to share her space with other women and so quick to attack other strong women. What are you afraid of, Blake?"

Locking eyes with her, Buffy saw a flash of fear in Blake's eyes. Obviously, she had hit on something -- good.

"I fear nothing," Anita said in a boastful voice. But all the same, she stepped back to reclaim her position next to Jean-Claude and Richard.

"I grow tired of these insults towards our beloved Anita," Asher said in what was clearly intended to be a threatening voice. "Perhaps we should end this banter and just kill all of you."

The rest of the Scoobies managed to keep a serious expression but, of course, Faith had to laugh.

"I'm sorry," she said in between giggles, "but I just cannot take any of you dudes seriously with that Renaissance hair. Seriously, almost every one of your dudes has long hair. I mean, I'm all about embracing people's different styles, but I feel like we wandered into a Renaissance Fair."

"Well, I love long hair," said Anita defensively as she crossed her arms, making sure to keep one hand near her shoulder holster.

"Yup, Anita definitely likes her girly men," Spike commented with a cackle. "Helps make her feel like the top dog sleeping with the feminine men."

This time the Scoobies and several of the weres, the ones not sleeping with Anita (both of them) burst out laughing.

Requiem immediately flew towards Spike and threw him against the back wall. "You will hold your tongue, sir, when you speak of our fair Anita."

Buffy choked back her laughter at seeing Spike's flying form smashing against the wall.

"Okay, seriously, what is with this obsession thing? Between what we've read about you and what we've seen tonight, Anita, you have like a dozen guys you're sleeping with who are all devoted to you? I mean, no offense or anything -- okay, maybe some offense -- but you ain't all that. You're not the dog-faced girl, but you are not nearly cute enough to be hooking up with all these pretty boys."

"Yeah, majorly weird," added Faith.

"Fuck you, I do not need you judging me." Anita's fingers toyed with her gun; she desperately wished Jean-Claude would just let her kill these bitches. But he had some plan to capture them and hold them for ransom to broker some deals with the Vampire Council.

"Anita is like a desert flower hardened by her surroundings, but beautiful and charming, nonetheless," an eloquent Requiem sighed.

"We all love her, you are just jealous," said a defiant Micah as he wrapped an arm around Anita's waist.

"Thanks, but I got a man. Tall, muscular, black, shaved head, and a huge-"

"Faith!" said an outraged but amused Buffy.

"What?" Faith shrugged as she held her open palms wide apart. "He has a *_huge_* amount of intelligence. So, yeah, def not Envy Gal over here."

Buffy looked back at Giles to figure out what to do next. He barely jerked his head to say 'no'. Looks like more stalling was needed before back up came.

"So," she began brightly. "Anita. Girlfriend. When did you decide to stop hunting monsters and start working for them? I mean, it *_is_* kinda weird that a vampire executioner is standing on that side of the line when we're over here."

Anita shrugged negligently. "Yeah, at one point I hunted the monsters. But here's something I learned: humans die, easily. Monsters? Not so much. So let's hear it for the monsters! At least I don't have to worry about them dying on me."

"Actually, after tonight, it looks you do," said Faith snidely.

"Bitch, you have no idea of the kind of power I possess. I am itching to kill you," Anita snarled in response. Demurely, Jean-Claude grabbed her wrist. After all, he did not want them to get shot. The Slayers were going to be very valuable, not to mention that the witch may be quite profitable, too.

"Actually, we really kind of do," Buffy contradicted her with a smirk.

"According to our files, you're the first real necromancer in a thousand years, a member of two triumvirates, Human Servant to the Master of the City, have 2 vampire servants -- well," Buffy said with a small laugh, "I suppose that's just one now, you're the Nimir-Ra of the Leopards, Lupa and Bolverek of the Wolves, Tigers are your animal to call as well as wolves, you're a succubus who feeds off energy, and then you've shown, on occasion, to be able to suck someone's life energy. Plus, it's claimed that you posses skills with many weapons and you're adept in the martial arts.

"So yeah," Buffy smiled smugly, "we do actually know what kind of power you posses."

"Oh," was all Anita could say. She was surprised at how well these people had done their homework.

"So now," Buffy continued, "my question is, how the hell did an apparent human like you come to claim all these powers?"

Andrew starting coughing into his first and muttered two words, "Mary Sue!", before he continued coughing.

All eyes were drawn to him.

"Who the hell is Mary Sue?" asked Anita in an icy tone.

"Oh bloody hell." Spike started laughing. "it's a fan fiction term for a female character who's loved by every man she meets and has amazing abilities."

"Wow, Spike! You read fan fiction too! That's so cool," gushed Andrew.

Spike looked alarmed. "Uh -- I might've read a couple Passions stories back in the day -- no need to make a big fuss about it, Geek Boy."

"What the-" began an annoyed Anita, but Jean-Claude hushed her.

"A woman who is amazing, that is certainly you, my _Ma Petite,_" he murmured as he kissed her gently on the cheek.

It made Buffy want to vomit.

"Now, let us get down to business," Jean-Claude said in an authoritative tone. "Dawn is approaching and I'm bored of all this. You came here for Andrew and we are very happy to get rid of him. So, that is settled.

"However, we will be keeping Spike, plus we will get both Slayers and the witch in exchange," he declared. "I will sell you both to the Vampire Council and keep the witch for myself.

"I do not care for the males, so they may leave," he said dismissively.

"Coulda fooled me," Xander muttered under his breath. "I think Spike might have been right when he called him a poof."

Buffy shared an incredulous look with Faith.

"Yeah, how 'bout not?" she answered as she glared at the Master of the City. "That's the worst damn offer I've ever heard in a negotiation."

Jean-Claude chuckled. "Perhaps you will prefer this one better. You do as I say, or all of my allies will kill you and your friends, here and now."

"I don't think so. Your killing days are over, Jean-Claude," rang out a new voice from the stairway.

* * *

**A/N:**

*evil cackle* Yay for saying all the things to Anita Blake that she deserves to hear! I don't know about many of you, but I was tickled pink when I thought of this chapter title :D

Review, Review, Review! Y'all have been so generous with feedback and like a crack addict I just need more!! (Hahahaha) I threw in a LOT of verbal jabs- Please tell me your favorites!

Also- Likey Willow/Sylvie? _(btw: Sylvie is not dating that other girl anymore in *my* story)_

Next up: The Contact is revealed and lots of bloodiness! Heads will roll (literally, I think)!!! Oh, and no worries about Dawn, in case you were wondering- JC likes his surprises ;)

Regarding VOTES:

HOO BOY! Damn, there have been a LOT of people voting- Thanks to everyone who contributed. I've closed off voting for now and will post votes *_after_* the big battle (Votes have heavily influenced people's fates and I want to have *_some_* things be a surprise ;) I have to say… The votes did not always go the way I expected… *evil chuckle* The following chapters are gonna be a hella good time!!!!!!!!!!!

---Flirt can be found at: .com/Flirt-Anita-Blake-Vampire-Hunter/dp/042523567X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1265167413&sr=1-1 . Read the reviews, not the book but the idea is centered on an experience LKH had with her icky looking hubby at a restaurant where a waiter was FLIRTING with them because they are so hot and LKH even has a freaking comic strip in the back of the book outlining this- and that her extreme hotness made the waiter sputter like a buffoon.


	11. Lines Are Drawn

_Chapter 11: Lines Are Drawn_

_Author Notes:_

_**With so many characters (and with people reading who may not be familiar with all the books) here is a quick ID key of who is present to lessen confusion:**_

_**Vampires**__: Spike, JC, Asher, Requiem, Wicked and Truth, Byron, London_

_**Wolves: **__Richard, Shang-Da, Jamil, Sylvie, Jason, several others_

_**Leopards**__: Micah, Nathaniel, Caleb_

_**Hyenas**__: Narcissus and several others_

_**Tigers**__: Crispin & Domino_

_**Lions**__: Haven and several others_

_**Rats**__: Rafael, Claudia, others acting as bodyguards_

_As always, thanks to Greywizard for taking the time to beta this! Not to mention, major props for giving me the idea of Dolph's purpose in entering this conflict. Super mad crazy thanks for that :D_

_CONGRATULATIONS to: vedranempress, war, FireWolfe--- You all correctly guessed Giles' contact!_

_And… I apologize to some readers because my muse went a different way than I was originally thinking for the big showdown so don't be sad if there's not as much bloodshed as you may want in *this_* chapter! But I am also in the editing process of 12 & 13 and let's just say there's more than enough to make up for things ;) PROMISE!!!!!!

* * *

"I don't think so. Your killing days are over, Jean-Claude," rang out a new voice from the stairway.

Faith shared a smug smile with Xander as they turned towards the stairs. Giles audibly breathed a sigh of relief at the cavalry arriving. Meanwhile, Buffy looked in the direction of Jean-Claude's crew and she smirked at the flabbergasted federal marshal. The brunette's eyes were saucer-sized and her mouth made a perfect 'O'.

"D-Dolph," she stuttered in confusion at the man who had just spoken. "Larry?" she cried out as the red-headed federal marshal and executioner stepped beside Sergeant Rudolph Starr. "Tammy?" she added shrilly as Larry's wife, witch and officer on Dolph's Regional Preternatural Investigation Team stepped to Dolph's other side. "What the hell are you guys doing here?"

Dolph grinned with satisfaction as he involuntary flexed his impressive football player physique. This had been a long time coming and he was going to savor the experience like a treat from the ice cream truck on its first day out for the summer. "Doing my job," he said gruffly.

"Unlike some people I know," he added nastily.

Anita's dark eyes blazed with a combination of anger and what some people (but not her!) might call fear as she stared at him. Her spine stiffened as her right hand itched to follow her instincts and pull out her gun.

"And what exactly does your job have to do with being here in the middle of an *_official_* Master of the City event?" she demanded haughtily.

Her voice sounded steady, harsh even, but she had to work to keep her nervousness out. For years, she had been very careful in keeping the official and unofficial aspects of her life separate. If they were to ever mix… Well, that would not be good.

With a snort of amusement, Dolph held up several important pieces of paper for everyone present to see.

"Well, *_Marshall_* Blake," he announced, sarcasm clearly evident, "I am here to serve Jean-Claude, Master of the City, with an execution notice."

Several in the audience gasped but Jean-Claude did not betray any emotion, his only reaction being a surge of anger in his dark blue eyes. Anita, however, did not bother to react discretely.

"What the *_hell_*, Dolph? You have no right, at *_all_* to order an execution just because you have issues with vampires!" she said in a raised voice.

Not bothering to address her contradiction, Dolph continued in an extremely smug tone, "Jean-Claude, based on extensive investigation during which we have caught your actions on tape, videotape, and through witness testimony, you are formally charged by the United States of America for administering an ongoing racketing scheme sponsored by the Vampire Council for the purpose of taking over control of the entire mid-western United States based out of St. Louis. The charges include murder, conspiracy to commit murder, interference in official police matters, and more.

"Due to your status as an undead son of a bitch," Dolph couldn't refrain from that unofficial edit, "your charges will result in your execution.

"In addition," he continued with a hard look at Anita, "Anita Blake, you are charged as a co-conspirator in these crimes and we are here for your arrest as well. Any other people present," now Dolph's dark eyes surveyed the crowd of vampires and weres, "are not currently charged with any crimes and you are free to leave."

Various emotions flickered over those in the crowd. Richard looked satisfied, as did his wolves. Surprise and then contemplation filled Rafael's features. Micah's mouth was set in a thin, angry line and he wrapped an arm around Anita protectively. Domino and Crispin, the two weretigers, looked worried and they stepped closer to their mistress, Anita. Narcissus took a step away from Asher, as his anxious eyes flittered between Dolph and Anita. A low growl emanated from Haven's throat and he flexed his hands menacingly as he waited for Anita's orders.

Asher slid in between Anita and Jean-Claude and his lips whispered urgently in their ears.

Jean-Claude smiled in Dolph's direction and he spoke in a lowered voice that caressed everyone's skin like liquid silk. "Sergeant Storr, I daresay your accusations have come as a shock to me. However, as much as I would like to discuss your concerns, perhaps I should introduce you to the Vampire Slayers, Buffy and Faith- part of the acclaimed terrorist group. You should take them into custody- imagine what a hero you will be for catching these infamous, heartless scoundrels."

Dolph's eyes glazed over and he nodded to himself slowly. "Yes, perhaps-"

His low mumblings were cut off by Larry who shook his shoulder. "Vampire tricks, sir," Larry whispered to his supervisor. Dolph's eyes immediately cleared and he gave Jean-Claude a furious glare.

"Alright, let's cut the bullshit," Buffy's irate tone echoed in the dungeon-like room. "Honestly, Jean-Claude, I know you think you're slicker than John Edward's evading a baby mama, but let's take a moment to add it up. First off, Dolph here has been cooperating with the Watchers' Council, keeping track of you. In addition to his work and the work of other Council operatives, enough evidence has been cumulated to clear the Watchers' Council of all terrorist charges and we've unearthed the Vampire Council's conspiracy to slowly take over various world governments."

Jean-Claude flinched as realized how serious the situation had gotten. He wanted to lie and deny it, yet he was quite curious about their resources. "How?"

"Wow. Tiny, pale, and froofy isn't that quick on the uptake," Xander snorted. Occupied with his laughter, he didn't notice how all the weres in the room flinched at the sound of his voice. "It's the 21st century, buddy. It was easy thanks to electronic bugs and surveillances; not to mention some of the most badass witches at our disposal– thanks, Will."

Willow gifted him with a genuine smile. "Thanks, Xand."

Deep laughter rumbled from Jean-Claude's chest. "You mortals are fools if you think you can take all of us out. You may try, but your efforts will result in death."

Buffy rolled her eyes. "If I had a nickel for every time an enemy promised me death-"

"-I'd do a day-long Beverly Hills shopping spree once a week," finished Faith with a grin.

"And what would you spend your nickels on?" inquired Buffy with an amused lift of her brow.

Faith pretended to ponder and answered with a grin. "Victoria's Secret shopping spree for some push-ups and panties, hit up on of those classy sex toy joints off the highway, and some quality time with my men- Robin, Jose Cuervo, and Jim Bean."

Wicked grinned at his brother. "I do wonder if that woman is betrothed. She sounds rather-"

"-Tasty?" he brother answered with a matching smile.

Giles cleared his throat behind his two tangent-loving Slayers.

"Oh yeah," Buffy answered, getting back on point. "Anyways, we're only after those of you who consider themselves the Big Bads. The lesser vamps get to avoid the killing."

"And you think you have what it takes to kill us?" Jean-Claude asked with a sneer. He was absolutely furious at the nerve of these women and silly mortal laws.

"We already took out Big Mama," Xander informed the gathering with a satisfied smile. "It was a lot of fun, actually. Got some awesome explosive devices from Russia - they're not a real big fan of the fang, ya know - and took some slayers out for a field trip. And 'Poof!' went the Big Bad Momma Vampire."

One of the were hyenas whined and Narcissus smacked him on the back of his head for showing a weakness. Still… The man who had just spoken held a great power within him and it was only due to his link to Asher that Narcissus remained where he was.

"What? *_You_* guys were the one to kill Marmee Noir? That was *_you_*?" Anita exclaimed in surprise.

"Enough," grunted Dolph. "Anita, come with us. Jean-Claude, submit and Larry will carry your execution out pain-free. Everyone else, get the hell out of here, or you'll regret being here."

Because he was angry, Jean-Claude's voice had a strong accent to it. "You mortals," he spat, "are the only ones who will regret being here. You are outnumbered and we have a special surprise. Elizabeth! Noah!"

A tall dark-haired woman with a pouty smile walked out from the side entrance with a gagged and bound Dawn. Behind her stalked another male who moved gracefully. Dawn's disguise was still partly on - although her black wig fell off, she was still wearing heavy black make-up and her goth clothes. Immediately, the Scoobies shouted in surprise and anger.

"Dawn! I thought I told you to stay back at HQ!" Buffy shouted in full 'big-sister irritation' mode. "And what the hell are you wearing?"

Dawn, unable to respond, simply shrugged her shoulders and wished she could speak so she could turn that bastard Jean-Claude into a rat. So she could stomp on his little rat head, too!

"You know, at first I thought we just had a witch who came here. She refused to give her name and neither Spike nor Andrew would reveal it. However, after her invisibility spell wore off, I was able to determine her association to you- the Slayer's sister. Now, you will all walk out of here or Elizabeth will slash your sister and make her a wereleopard."

"I'm sorry, Buffy- they said if I mentioned that Dawn was here, they'd kill the two of us. Not to mention that Anita formally ordered Spike to stay quiet," offered a regretful Andrew.

Dawn, meanwhile, made a muffled noise that Buffy assumed translated into "Take these losers out!" Buffy stilled as she assessed the situation. So many chess pieces lay on the board- that was their first problem.

Xander's mind buzzed at seeing Dawn- who was, for all intents and purposes, more family than his blood relations- in danger from the wereleopard. It felt like his body had released even more adrenaline than normal because suddenly his body was humming with energy. Without realizing it, a low growl escaped his lips.

"You! Give her back to us now!" he rasped, eyes intently focusing on the woman Jean-Claude had identified as Elizabeth. "Andrew as well," he added, almost as an afterthought.

Elizabeth's head whipped in Xander's direction and she found herself forced to submit to the overpowering presence commanding her. She also realized that if she was in leopard form, her tail would be between her legs right now, cowering with fear before the man who'd spoken.

Slowly, so not to further anger the dominant male, she dragged the witch and boy towards him. Off to the side, she heard a cry of outrage from her Nimir-Ra, but her mind couldn't concentrate on that now. All she heard was the man before her. Gently, she knelt as she deposited the witch and boy at his feet and looked up at him in wonder.

"What are you?" Elizabeth asked softly.

The Scoobies looked at Xander in confusion.

"Willow?" asked Buffy. "Was that some kind of witchiness?"

"No," Willow answered in an amazed voice. "That was Xander. I could- I could almost taste it -- the power."

Xander began untying Dawn as he shot them a confused smile. "Power? Me? Are you sure we're talking 'bout the same Xan-Man right now? 'Cause Demon-Magnet, Plan Man, Donut Guy - these are all aliases of mine. But not really Power Man."

It took him longer than he expected to untie Dawn because his fingers kept slipping. It was like the worst case of ADD was coming over him and he barely felt like he could stay in his skin. There was something about the energy in this room… But he couldn't put his finger on it.

Narcissus licked his lips eagerly. The man's aura tasted like strawberries and the Oba of the hyenas wanted to take a bite.

"You're a were," he stated matter-of-factly to Xander. "I knew there was something different about you."

Xander laughed. "Listen, maybe I need to shave my back every once in a while but I'm definitely not a were. Raw meat-free- for what, Willow? Twelve years now?" He grinned and waggled his eyebrows.

Willow just sighed. "Poor Herbert. We lost ye too soon." Her face scrunched up in contemplation. "Ya don't think…?" She shook her head and waved off her friend's attention. "Never mind. Crazy idea."

"Yes, never mind that. We've got official business to be done here. Anita, please go with Tammy. Jean-Claude, would you prefer to lie in your coffin - maybe for a more traditional vampire staking?" asked Dolph, a bit maliciously, it must be admitted.

"No!" shouted Anita. "I won't let you kill him."

"Then you will be held on additional charges, Anita Blake! Make the choice: Leave with the humans or die with the monsters," shouted a frustrated Dolph.

Anita lowered her head and paused for a beat. "Let's hear it for the monsters," she said softly, as she looked Dolph square in the eye.

"I choose the monsters, Dolph."

"You have made a grievous error coming here, fools!" Jean-Claude declared pompously. "We had brought together all of our allies to show the slayers our strength originally. But now, it just means more power to dispose of you humans quicker." Jean-Claude looked around the room. "Micah, are your leopards with us?"

Micah gave Anita a significant look. "Always."

Nathaniel nodded in agreementwhen Jean-Cladude glanced over at him, and Caleb and Elizabeth seemed eager for a fight.

"Hyenas," called out Asher's cool voice. "Are you with us?"

Narcissus practically salivated at the opportunity to take the suspiciously interesting man named Xander by force. Not to mention, the smaller, softer captive named Andrew looked like he would be a delicious appetizer. He nodded to Asher, his master. "As your animal to call, of course."

"Tigers?" asked Anita. Though there were only two of them, she knew that the power of a weretiger was not to be overlooked.

"Anything for you," said Crispin in a dreamy tone and Domino nodded.

"Lions?" Anita called out.

Haven let out a low chuckle. "Gotta love a good fight. Don't get too many opportunities now that I'm outta Chicago. I'm in.

"Rafael? Is your rodere with us?"

Rafael looked towards the newcomers as he considered the situation.

Each of them oozed with power, but the key factor of that group was the man – Xander, he'd heard the Head Slayer and the clearly powerful witch call him. Although he'd claimed not to be a were, he had already intimidated a dominant wolf and a dominant leopard. The Rat King was no fool - It would be insane to go against the man, members of the Slayer Army, and the orders of the federal courts. Above all, Rafael cared for his people. It didn't matter if Sergeant Storr and the slayers were outnumbered - he knew this was going to be a slaughter. And not the one Jean-Claude believed was impending.

"We are paid to guard you and your people, Jean-Claude. I will not have my rats fight your war," Rafael stated in a strong voice. He moved towards the edge of the room, near the stairs, and his people followed.

'_Besides, I certainly will not fight when you won't even be able to pay us next week, since you're getting staked today,_' Rafael thought idly.

Members of Jean-Claude's group stared at Rafael in disbelief. "Fine then," Jean-Claude said curtly. "Richard? Are you and your wolves with us?" he asked with an attentive stare.

Richard gave Buffy a long look, and noticed the red-haired witch mumbling spells under her breath. Dawn, Tammy, and the older man, Giles, were linking hands with the witch and they all seemed to step farther back into the shadows. He glanced behind him at his pack. His Geri, Skoll, and Hati all wore eager expressions, but Jason looked nervous. Sighing, Richard stepped in between Anita and Jean-Claude.

"I suppose I am your triumvirate member," Richard said glancing to them while his hand slid into his pocket.

"It is about time you realized that my furry friend," Jean-Claude said menacingly. "For if they execute me, you may very well die due to our triumvirate bond."

Richard shrugged. "Yeah, about that," he began. And then, a knife whipped towards Jean-Claude's wrist and blood splashed onto the cement floor.

"What the-" Jean-Claude began screaming, but Richard was already spilling Anita's blood on the ground as she shrieked in surprise. Jean-Claude grabbed Richard by his shirt and spat at him, "We do not have time for your foolishness Richard!"

Richard grinned as he cut his own palm and dripped blood into the puddle.

"Foolishness? I've finally saved myself from being tied to a manipulative bastard and an emasculating bitch. I don't think that's foolish, at all."

Jean-Claude screamed as he threw Richard towards his wolves, "Kill them. Especially the witches!"

And then, all hell broke loose.

* * *

**A/N:**

Mad thanks to everyone for reading and reviewing so far. I do happy dances every time I check my e-mail when the update comes :D Please continue giving me your feedback!

Richard got 16 Redemption votes v. 6 Kill votes… So redeemed he has been! Hope people are happy that Richard, usually kicked around Anita-land like a sad puppy, is making a damn good decision : ) Cause let's face it- the poor bastard deserves it after LKH ruined his character all because Richard was written about the husband she divorced after book 9...

Oh… and I know I am evil leaving the chapter here, but it seemed the most natural end. Next chapter will be up soon…. Anyone ever hear that song "Let the Bodies Hit the Floor" by Drowning Pool? Well- Consider that the theme of chapters 12 and 13 ;)

**Thank you to the following website for helping me to keep some names and titles straight: .com/page/


	12. Decapitation,Evisceration,CastrationOHMY

Chapter 12: Decapitation, Evisceration, & Castration- Oh My!

**Author Notes:**

**With so many characters (and with people reading who may not be familiar with all the books) here is a quick ID key of who is present to lessen confusion:**

**Vampires**: Spike, JC, Asher, Requiem, _Wicked and Truth, _Byron, London

**Wolves**: _Richard, Shang-Da, Jamil, Sylvie, Jason, several others_

**Leopards**: Micah, Nathaniel, Caleb, Elizabeth, Noah

**Hyenas**: Narcissus and underlings (_Remus, Dionysus, Ixion, and Bacchus)_

**Tigers**: Crispin & Domino

**Lions**: Haven and several others

**Rats**: _Rafael, Claudia, others acting as bodyguards_

And with so many characters interacting I am including '~*~*~' to separate the scenes just for organizational purposes.

As always, major props to Greywizard for being a bodacious beta (I do enjoy alliteration;) In addition, thanks to him for giving me the idea to use a certain season 1 episode 6 plot point for the Xan-Man.

This chappie is for: PATM and Valkyrie; who I know were disappointed with my lack of violence earlier. All this violence is for you- as well as everyone else. Hope you're happy with how the Redemption/Agonizing Death vote went! ;)

* * *

The room exploded with activity. Richard shouted for his wolves to fight as they leaped towards the Scoobies and tossed them their weapons.

"Thanks Mr. Grabby," Buffy said to Shang-Da, even as she gave him a minor glare. She still wasn't pleased with being searched- even if it *_had_* all been part of the plan.

Shang-Da just smirked. Feeling up attractive women and fighting? And being ordered to do so? Sometimes his position as Hati was pretty awesome.

"Nice to have you on board, Richard," Buffy grinned as she side kicked London against the wall.

"Good to be here. Hey- Are they going to be okay over there?" he asked as he motioned towards the chanting Willow, Dawn, Giles, and Tammy. On each of their sides stood Dolph and Larry with ready guns. As he spoke, Richard ducked a punch from Micah and partially shifted his hands. He grunted with satisfaction as he raked a claw over Micah's pretty boy face.

"Oh yeah, Willow's got a protective spell around all six of 'em," Buffy reassured him. "Larry and Dolph are back-up just in case." Buffy slid out a small sword from underneath the back of her shirt that Shang-Da purposely avoided. She winced as the blade slid through London's neck.

'_Ugh_,' she thought as the vampire's blood splattered across her top. '_Blood is *so* hard to get out.'_

~*~*~

Xander pulled out two side arms that he had hidden beneath his jacket and began blasting silver bullets into anything nasty that moved. Over the last five years, Xander had studied many different fighting arts, but he wasn't dumb enough to think hand-to-hand was the best way for his soft superpower-less body to go. He glanced at the Rat King Rafael who was leading his people out the side door.

"Hey! Rat King!" Xander shouted. "Don't leave just yet, the party is starting to get good!"

Rafael's back stiffened and he turned to Xander. Suddenly, he found himself battling against the man's will so he could lead his people out of this madhouse to safety.

"Rafael?" Claudia whispered urgently. She, too, had felt the power in the one-eyed man's voice.

"What do you want of me?" Rafael asked. "Are you using your power to keep me here?" he demanded in an angry tone.

Xander blinked in confusion. "Power? No. I don't think so, anyway. I'm not a were, you know that. But you should stay and fight. We could use some more help. And trust me, you'll be happy afterwards that you decided to join us." A lion leaped towards Xander and he almost nonchalantly fired several rounds into its head without flinching. The animal fell and Xander looked back to the Rat King.

"So?" he asked expectantly.

Rafael briefly considered the man's request. To be fair, he was not one hundred percent sure he could even deny the other man's request. Nonetheless, it would undeniably be smart for his people to fight on the winning side.

"Yes, I agree." He turned to his rats. "We will fight against Jean-Claude's people. Kill if you must." Gleams of excitement shone in the eyes of the various ex-mercenaries and thugs who made up his rodere and they quickly jumped into the fray.

~*~*~

Faith wasn't surprised in the least to see two vampire brothers approaching her.

"You two again?" she cried out in feigned exasperation. "I know y'all are hot for me but the only kind of penetration that's going to happen here is my sword in your heart."

Truth winked at his brother. "Do you think that was metaphorical? I daresay this woman has been a heart breaker in her day." The two slowly flanked her.

Snorting, Faith rolled her eyes. "Gotta say, that was extremely lame. If anything, I'm more of the 'rip your dead heart out and cut off your head' kinda gal. I'm old-fashioned like that."

"Old-fashioned? Shouldn't you be making us dinner in that case?" asked a smirking Wicked.

"Right. And I bet I know what- or rather who- you would want for dinner," she said drolly.

"She's quite bright, brother. She's very intelligent."

"Indeed, Wicked. I bet she would taste as sweet as she sounds. Such a charming mouth on a beautiful lady."

"Yeah, I'm a regular member of Mensa. Can we just fight now?" she asked annoyed.

"Oh yes," said Truth with a wide smile. He and Wicked were certainly looking forward to testing out their skills against the slayer.

~*~*~

Together, they murmured the spells of preparation to take on the dark magic of the triumvirate. Standing in a circle, they held hands to maintain their power and then Willow began reciting the spell she'd created while Giles, Dawn, and Tammy all lent their energy.

"Gaia hear our plea.

Once a triumvirate was created.

Vampire. Necromancer. Wolf.

Unnatural together these three,

Granting power that shouldn't be.

A link was formed,

Humanity was mourned.

Closer became the bind,

Enough to withstand time.

Gaia hear our plea.

Take the offered blood,

Of Vampire, Necromancer, Wolf.

Sever their ties,

Separate their lives.

To each their own,

Never more may they become.

Now it will end,

And may Your Will never bend."

As the spell ended, they felt the power surge through them and explode outside the circle. Willow collapsed and Giles grabbed her around the waist.

"Willow? Are you okay?" he demanded worriedly.

"Woo-boy. Nothing like primal power shootin' through ya," she said in a dazed voice. "It's gonna be a while to get workin' on Spike's spell, though."

~*~*~

"Going somewhere, Jean-Claude? Anita?" Richard growled, his body partially transformed by the change. The two hesitated in the doorway of the side exit to turn around and glare at him.

Buffy finished eviscerating Caleb and flicked the blood off her sword across Anita's fuming expression.

"Yeah," she added with a small grin as she stepped beside Richard. "I was hoping we could have some girl time, Anita. I'm just dying to get some fashion tips from you. Where do you do your shopping? Forever I-Sleep-With-21-Men?"

Anita whirled her Hi-Power Browning out and evaluated Buffy's halter top and jeans. "Like you're one to talk," she snorted.

Buffy 'tsked' her. "Hey, there's a difference, Super-Ho. I'm sassy, *_you're_* just trashy."

Anita went to pull the trigger when suddenly all three of the triumvirate members fell to the ground, shaking uncontrollably. They writhed and moaned as they felt their link being severed and that extra punch of power leave their metaphysical artillery.

~*~*~

Andrew tucked a spare dagger into his pants and waved his sword menacingly into the air.

"Ye shall all pay for capturing me, filthy swine!" he announced, a bit theatrically it must be admitted. Surprisingly, none of the bad guys seemed to be paying attention to him, as they were, too, caught up in the skirmishes against the slayers, wolves, and rats.

"Well, that's a bummer," Andrew muttered as he idly kicked somebody's torn appendage out of his way.

"Lonely, little boy?" called out a soft, menacing voice.

Taken by surprise, Andrew pivoted to see the Oba of the Hyenas staring at him with a hungry look. He recognized Narcissus from the files and winced.

"Uh, nope. I, uh, don't get lonely easy," he began babbling an answer as he tried to figure out how he could get out of this particular predicament. "Growing up, ya know, I didn't have a lot of friends because my mom said if I hung out with the other kids on the street I would get chicken pox or do drugs. Not to mention my older brother was never really interested in hanging out with me. But it all worked out because I read a lot, ya know, and learned a lot about the Millennium Falcon and spent my time trying to figure out how many Midi-chlorians I had."

Narcissus smiled evilly as he yanked Andrew's arm and pulled him into a darkened corner. He took a deep breath as he pinned Andrew's arms against the wall; the sword clattering to the ground.

"Ah, the smell of blood- It makes my beast want to come out and play," he declared. "And it makes me think of other things I like to play.

"Do you like to play games, Andrew?" He asked ominously as his eyes glowed, and Andrew saw that that his beast now lay very close to the surface.

Gulping, Andrew began to stammer out a response. "W-Well, um, y-yeah," he nodded nervously. "I really like Dungeons and Dragons a lot. Uh, do you?"

Letting out a barking laugh, Narcissus' finger trailed down Andrew's cheek, making the youth shiver with repressed fright. "I certainly enjoy playing in dungeons- they're full of darkness and chains, quite fun all around. As for dragons…Well," he smirked. "My dragon would like to come out and play. Tell me, are you a bottom? I'm in need of a new bottom. Asher doesn't play with me as much anymore, now that he has Anita."

"Um."

Narcissus threw Andrew to the floor and the Watcher yelped. One hand pinned Andrew's left wrist while the other quickly unbuttoned Narcissus' pants.

"Hush, little one, it will be over quickly," he murmured. "I've just been smelling your sweetness all night; you're like a ripened berry on the vine that's begging to be tasted."

Andrew's eyes widened in alarm. This was *_not_* what he had been expecting at all. As the Oba revealed his half-naked form, Andrew remembered his spare dagger. Yanking it out of his pocket, he promptly hacked off Narcissus' 'thingy' (as Andrew called it). Howling, Narcissus rolled over, clutching at his bloody crotch.

"That'll teach you!" shouted Andrew, feeling suddenly braver. "What is it with you St. Louis people and your stories of rape- metaphysical or otherwise?"

Andrew shook his head, gathered his courage and plunged the dagger into the Hyena's heart.

The werehyenas began to howl in response and immediately rushed over towards Andrew.

"Remus!" shouted one. "How should we kill the murderer of our leader? Should we rip him apart piece by piece or save time by ripping his head off and eating his remains?"

"I think, Dionysus, that we should eat him alive. His screams will be music to our ears," said another as they all glared threateningly at Andrew.

Before anyone could add to the '101 ways to kill Andrew' discussion, Xander jumped in, shoving his way through the group, wielding his two guns.

"None of you will touch him," he snarled as he gestured with his pistols to ward them away . "I've about had it up to here with all this killing my friends talk."

"Aw, Xander, wow. You really consider us friends? I never knew," said Andrew with a wide smile as Xander just rolled his eyes.

All four of the werehyenas - Remus, Dionysus, Ixion, and Bacchus- whimpered and dropped to their knees before him.

"You say you are not a were but you smell like home, like hyena," Remus softly stated.

"Oh. Heh. Well, I was possessed by a primal hyena spirit back when I was living on the Hellmouth. Course, that was fixed… Or so I thought. Huh," Xander murmured, mostly to himself.

Ixion crawled towards Xander and rubbed against his work boot. "Master," he whispered. Soon, the other three hyenas began rubbing against Xander as well, still in their human form. Xander looked down and was once again reminded why his life was so strange. Even stranger, he reflected to himself, was the fact that having four grown men rubbing against him calling him master was not the weirdest thing to ever happen to him.

'_May as well use this random power for a purpose_,' he thought.

"Alright, alright," Xander said. "Stand up," he ordered and all four shot up. "That's right. I *_am_* your Master. As such, you will no longer be fighting for Jean-Claude. Instead you must fight for us- the Slayers, the wolves, and the rats. Got that?"

All four men nodded vigorously; anxious to please their new leader.

"Okay, get going boys!" Xander shouted. Golly, he sure did enjoy being called Master. Almost made up for being Dracula's Bug Boy.

~*~*~

Buffy eyed the triumvirate members nervously.

They all seemed to be passed out from the spell, and she was tempted to stake Jean-Claude and be done with it, but she was never one to perform a kill when the other creature couldn't fight back. Truthfully because it took all the fun out of it.

Surveying the rest of the room, she saw Spike crouched on the floor against the back wall, rocking back and forth.

"Spike?" she asked. "Have you started to go all First Evil again on us?"

"No," he growled. "Anita told me very clearly to help her and Jean-Claude in this fight and it's taking everything I've got to just sit still and not kill one of your soddin' friends," he said before he closed his eyes and recommenced his rocking.

"Oh-kay then," Buffy said as she turned around to see the three begin to rise. She rushed to help Richard up. "You feel okay?"

He stumbled and straightened himself. "A bit weak, but other than that- great! Damn!" Taking a deep breath, he exhaled slowly as he smiled at Buffy. "Your friend did it! I feel free! No more of Anita's anger, no more vampire in my mind- I'm my own person."

Jean-Claude choked back a laugh. "You will never be happy with yourself, Richard. Now, you just won't have Anita or I to blame anymore."

Richard growled and leaped at Jean-Claude, clawing his face in the process. Buffy noticed that his bodyguards, Shang-Da and Jamil, quickly jumped in to help their Ulfricbeating the arrogant vampire to the floor.

"Well, now. Isn't this nice," she said scornfully as Anita rose. "Now we get a little girl time."

"What? You wanna paint each other's nails?" Anita sneered. "I bet I know your favorite color. Red- Blood red." Anita raised her gun towards Buffy, but the slayer quickly somersaulted to Anita's side and kicked the gun across the room.

"Honestly, Anita. Who do you think you are with your little guns? Blade? Ya know, it's not very sportsmanlike to try to kill your opponent while being yards away." She held up her slender sword. "This is much better."

Anita grinned and yanked her long knife from a special sheath she wore against her back. "Fine. You want a swordfight, you got one. Interesting observation- Mine's bigger."

Buffy smiled wryly. "Ah- so this is the infamous Anita charm I've heard about. You really just can't take being around other strong women, can you?"

"Fuck you, bitch." Anita slashed down but Buffy easily parried the blow.

"Giles always told me that people who have to resort to foul language simply don't have enough intelligence or imagination to come up with a quippy response," Buffy said in a condescending and snarky tone. Then she forced the brunette to fly backwards with a rib-crushing kick.

~*~*~

"Willow? How are you feeling?" asked a concerned Dawn.

"Be-Better," she answered shakily. "Just need a couple more minutes."

"No problem! I'll just keep myself busy," she said cheerfully as she stepped past the protective shield.

"Oh dammit," Giles muttered, not feeling good enough to try to grab her and pull her back inside the wards.

As soon as she was free of the protective circle, the wereleopard Jean-Claude had called Elizabeth jumped at her. Thanking Gaia for her quick reflexes, Dawn ducked and held her hands out defensively.

"Little slut. I don't know how that man tricked me into letting you go, but I'll make up for it now," Elizabeth snarled at her.

"Yeah, whatever," Dawn said with a roll of her eyes. "I've read about you. You sold your own people out to several local baddies- the old Lupa and that Chimera pan-were dude. You're definitely more of the five dollar hooker persuasion than I am, selling yourself to the highest bidder."

Elizabeth growled and leaped towards Dawn again. Invoking one of the Gods of Wind, Dawn whispered, "Boreus, aid me," and the curly-haired wereleopard was instantly engulfed in an icy cyclone that spun around the floor. "Oh Great North Wind, oh Devouring One! Claim this traitorous woman for your own! This sacrifice I give unto ye!" Dawn shouted, her fear and anger fueling her emotional invocation.

Elizabeth began screaming as the wind whipped around her with increasing speed. Cracks formed on her lips, her clothes were torn off, and a layer of frost covered her from head to toe. The furious wind tore at her hair, bit by bit, until with a great yank, the power of Boreus ripped her scalp off. With a terrified shriek, Elizabeth tried to press down the tender flaps of skin hanging from her skull but the wind forced her arms back against her sides. Her face looked liked she was speeding down on a rollercoaster as the wind rippled past her. Then the wind found the space under her skin, through her eyes, nose, mouth, and ears. Within a minute, the old god named the Devouring One ripped off her skin and consumed it.

The wind calmed and Elizabeth's flayed body dropped lifelessly onto the floor.

Dawn bowed and thanked the god. She knew that Boreus had a temper, but da-amn!

~*~*~

Panting, Faith wiped sweat off her brow with one hand while aiming her sword at the blond vampire on her right.

"Alright, I'll admit it, you boys are good," she offered belligerently. "But I'm getting a little bored with this sparring. I feel like neither of you are trying very hard tonight. You've barely even scratched me! Geez, even our baby slayers can hit harder than you!"

Truth pushed his dark hair out of his face as he gingerly got up. Faith certainly knew how to pack a punch. "While it would undoubtedly bring us great honor to kill a vampire slayer in battle, especially a revered one as yourself, that is not our intention tonight."

"What?" Her eyes narrowed as she gave him a cynical look. "So you're fighting me, but you're not planning on killing me? And the million dollar question is 'Why?'" She demanded as she dropped back into a defensive stance in order to stay protected on both sides from the vamps.

Wicked smirked as he gave his brother a 'look'. "That does sound rather mad, doesn't it? Quite frankly, we wanted to test your skills. You see, it's been a very long time since we've sparred with a slayer-"

"-Roughly one-hundred and fifty years; ever since Charlotte was killed by our Master," interjected Truth.

"Yes, that is a long time. Obviously, we could not pass up this opportunity," added Wicked.

"Whoa. Hold up. This is your idea of fun?" asked an indignant Faith.

"Of course," said Truth with a grin. "Isn't it yours?"

Faith flashed them a mischievous grin. "Well -- Yeah. My life revolves around the Three F's. Food, Fighting, and-"

"Fucking?" asked Wicked with a twinkle in his eye. "By all means, Faith, let us end the fighting portion of your life and proceed onto the next stage."

She bit her lip to hold back a laugh. "Sure. You down for some Taco Bell Fourth Meal?"

The brothers laughed. "I was thinking of something more along the lines of dessert, Slayer," said Wicked.

"Wait, hold up," she said with a raised hand. "Are you two trying to play me? Don't you work for Jean-Claude? Shouldn't you be trying to kill me and my friends?" Faith eyed them warily, ready for the next attack.

They shrugged nonchalantly. "We do not wish to bring about the deaths of Jean-Claude or Anita. Indeed, we are warriors, but we will also not participate in anything connected to the malicious Vampire Council. Death to them all, we say." Truth gave Faith a severe look. "By our honor and on the grave of our deceased common link, Charlotte the Vampire Slayer, we swear not to harm you or your comrades."

Faith studied the two closely. Strangely enough, she believed them.

"All right, I accept your oath. And with that in mind, I'm going to find things to kill."

She then walked past them and jumped into another fight. Sparring was all good and fun but it lacked the blood and guts that really made her feel accomplished.

~*~*~

"Bitch."

Buffy swayed away from Anita's blow and landed a fist against the other woman's nose. Blood began dripping down and she shrieked. "Spike! Get here now!"

"Aw, what's the matter? Can't fight your battles on your own? Come on, Anita, let's just keep it between us girls," Buffy cajoled. Anita caught her descending fist and, surprisingly, connected with an uppercut to Buffy's solar plexus.

"Spike, I order you to kill Buffy."

"Aw, c'mon now, you simpering siren!" he protested.

"Kill her," Anita demanded and forced her necromancer energy into the order.

Buffy sighed and turned towards Spike. "So here's the part where you do the zombie thing and attack me?" she asked.

"That's right," he said between gritted teeth. "I must try to kill you. All right, then. Buffy, your hair looks like an ad for a women's mental institution."

"What?" she exclaimed in a surprised tone while she reflexively patted down her locks.

"That's right. And your make-up looks like you just came back from a Miley Cyrus and Demi Lovato sleepover," he cracked with a grin.

"Spike- What the hell have they done to you here?" asked an annoyed, though slightly amused, Buffy.

"And Buffy, what kind of name is that? You sound like one of those old ladies from the Westminister Dog Show. Or worse- you sound like one of the show dogs."

"What the hell, Spike?" asked a shrill Anita. "I told you to kill her!"

"Yeah, what of it?" he asked in a cocky tone. "Ya told me to kill her but you didn't specify 'how.' I'm killing the girl by embarrassing her to death."

"Dammit! Spike I want you to-" But Anita never finished that sentence, because Buffy's punch knocked out several of her teeth.

Spike grinned and began whistling a jaunty tune as he headed into the next room. He figured it would be best if he got out of earshot of the tart- at least until Willow fixed him up good and proper.

Then he'd be happy to have a little chat with the chippy.

~*~*~

Faith saw the petite Geri get thrown to the ground by the slim and scarred Asher. Sylvie hissed at the impact and she clenched her claws.

Which Faith thought was a super cool trick, by the way- to partially transform. She saw Oz do it once when they teamed up against a Nepalese mountain demon, but it still didn't lessen her excitement at seeing Sylvie's moves.

"Yo! Two-Face! Shouldn't you jump back into a Batman cartoon?" Faith taunted.

Asher turned a murderous glare in her direction and attacked her. The master vamp was so fast, she didn't have a chance to raise her weapon. Instead, the impact made it fly out of her hand.

"How dare you make light of my existence, you pugnacious tramp!" Asher punched her in the jaw as he shouted.

"Pugnacious? Did you just call me a dog?" Faith snarled angrily as she head-butted him. "And those aren't even cute- they're damn ugly!" She curled up her legs and flipped Asher over and away from her.

Jumping up, she tried to make her way towards Sylvie when she tripped over something. "Nasty," she grumbled as she kicked some random entrails off her shoe. "Was the evisceration your doing?"

"I got the black and white spotted one and your friend Xander got the other. Both of those tigers were asking for it. They thought they were all big, tough men and all," Sylvie grumbled.

"Don't they always," laughed Faith as she stood up.

"Got her now!" shouted one of the vampires as his arms encircled her chest like a jungle snake.

Requiem laughed and walked towards Faith. "Good job, Byron. Time to give this tart her due. This will be revenge for your acts towards Anita and Jean-Claude," he announced as he began to recite a poem:

"But anon the great San Philip, she bethought herself and went, Having that within her womb that had left her ill content; And the rest they came aboard us, and they fought us hand to hand, For a dozen times they came with their pikes and musqueteers, And a dozen times we shook 'em off as a dog that shakes his ears When he leaps from the water to the land."

"I'm sorry," said Faith in a sweet tone. "Are you going to bore me to death? 'Cause speaking poetry all the time- majorly lame."

"Why you ill-mannered whore!" cried an outraged Requiem as he punched Faith across the face.

Faith lifted her legs and kicked the vamp ten feet backwards.

"Wow, he sure knows how to sweet talk a gal," she gasped as Byron immediately tightened his hold. "Yo, dude, let go!" Faith struggled but she was stuck in his bear hug, and black dots began to spot her vision and she felt the strength exiting her body. As she tried to gulp in one more breath, Byron dropped her suddenly.

Pushing herself to sit up, her body was wracked with coughs as her lungs got used to that fun breathing thing again. Byron fell next to her, grunting in pain; she could now see a long sword was embedded in his stomach.

Faith looked up with a grin, expecting to see Sylvie, but instead, Truth matched her smile. He leaned forward, putting his weight on the sword so that Byron was pinned to the floor. Behind him stood Wicked with a furious Requiem clutched in his arms.

"Uh- Thanks?" she said doubtfully.

Truth shrugged. "Two against one are not very fair odds, fair lady. And it is not very honorable to fight your enemy while your friend pins their arms."

"No," said Wicked with a snort. "That is more of the- how do they say it? Schoolyard bullying type of fight. Cowardly, either way."

Faith stood up shakily. She guessed from the pain that at least a couple of ribs were broken.

"Appreciate it, fellas," she nodded her thanks. "Of course, two against one are my type of odds. Y'all can sit back, relax, and watch mama work now. I can handle these puffy-shirted bastards." She grinned as she picked her sword back up.

"You hate puffy shirts?" Truth said in a hurt tone. "I used to love those type of shirts."

Wicked rolled his eyes.

"Hence the reason why I introduced you to Armani," he declared loudly. Both of them released their charges and walked backwards away from the fight.

"Honestly brother, if I didn't dress you who knows what awful outfits you would come up with."

* * *

**A/N:**

FINALLY, THE VIOLENCE HAS COMMENCED! I hope you are pleased, dear readers, for the is far more of it to come. Mwaahahaha! ;)

Lemme know what you think!

_**Death Toll:**_

_Most of the people killed thus far are minor characters that no one bothered to vote for. However, Narcissus got 12 Death votes and 3 Redeem votes. I hope you thought his death was fitting : ) Caleb was close with 3 Death votes v. 2 Redeem._

Damian (staked)-- Faith

Valentina (ratted and squashed) -- Dawn

Nathaniel's creepy hair -- Spike

London (Decapitated) -- Buffy

Caleb (evisceration) -- Buffy

Elizabeth (Killed by the North Wind God through flaying) - Dawn

Narcissus (Castrated, Stabbed in the heart) -- Andrew

Crispin (Eviscerated) -- Xander

Domino (Eviscerated)-- Sylvie

_**References**_:

**Boreus**: Greek God of the North Wind

**Requiem's Poem: **'The Revenge - A Ballad of the Fleet'- by Lord Tenneyson

PS:

Sorry CousinMary! I know you loved him, but Narci just creeped me out too much and took too much pleasure in torturing people… But his homies get to live!


	13. The Law of the Jungle

**Chapter 13: The Law of the Jungle**

Author Notes:

With so many characters (and with people reading who may not be familiar with all the books) here is a quick ID key of who is present to lessen confusion:

**Vampires**: Spike, JC, Asher, Requiem, _Wicked and Truth, _Byron, London

**Wolves: **_Richard, Shang-Da, Jamil, Sylvie, Jason, several others_

**Leopards**: Micah, Nathaniel, Caleb, Elizabeth, Noah

**Hyenas**: Narcissus and underlings (_Remus, Dionysus, Ixion, and Bacchus)_

**Tigers**: Crispin & Domino

**Lions**: Haven and several others

**Rats**: _Rafael, Claudia, others _

With so many characters interacting I am including '~*~*~' to separate the scenes just for organizational purposes.

A round of applause to Greywizard for being a splendiferous beta : )

* * *

"Ya know, this is kinda cute actually," Buffy cracked as she parried another feeble blow from Anita. "You've been here in St. Louis for so long thinking you're the big bad, but you can't even scratch me with your little knife."

"Oh, I'm *_so_* sorry that I am not up to your typical standards, Ms. Infamous Slayer," Anita grunted as she futilely slashed through the air again.

Buffy grinned. "It's okay. Few can match my standards. But it's hilarious how the next day at the demon-y water cooler, all the baddies brag about fighting me- If they make it out alive, that is."

Anita jabbed her long knife towards Buffy and slashed upwards, coming closer to scratching her opponent this time.

"Maybe I won't need to brag-- I'll just show all the demons your head as proof," she remarked with a wicked laugh. The broken triumvirate had weakened her, that was true, but Anita was still feeling strong, thanks to the power of her animals inside and her second triumvirate. She was still human, but she was certainly stronger and faster than the typical one.

"You want proof?" Buffy snarled. Her sword whistled through the air as she carved the letter 'B' into Anita's right cheek. "There's some proof."

"Fucking bitch!" Anita exclaimed, her tone ripe with pain and outrage.

"I'm done playing tea party with you, Zombie Porno Queen," Buffy informed Anita. "You have severely fucked up by turning your back on your own race to hop in bed with the vamps-- both literally and metaphorically. Of course, I get that there's nothing wrong with some vamp loving-- in certain circumstances, that is-- but you've helped them with their plots and you have helped them kill people without losing sleep over it. You say you like the monsters.

"Well, hooker, let me tell you: You *_are_* a monster!" she declared. "And a fucking traitor to other humans, not to mention an overall bitch."

Anita screamed with anger and threw all her weight into her sword but Buffy casually deflected the blow with enough force to knock Anita's knife out of her hands. After a shocked pause, Anita aimed a punch for Buffy's throat, but the slayer dropped her sword, grabbed Anita's forearm, and casually snapped it. With a howl of pain, Anita used her other fist to punch Buffy, but the blond easily caught the fist with one hand and slowly crushed Anita's fist.

Then she kicked the screaming necromancer across the floor.

"You had a chance, Anita," Buffy told the broken and bleeding necromancer. "Dolph charged you and you could have left without any problems. Could have had your day in court and maybe even get parole, someday. But no, you just had to choose your boyfriend. Not to mention, you have been quite the rude hussy when it comes to giving up my friend, Spike."

Hands on her hips, Buffy glared down at the stricken Anita.

Anita laughed bitterly. "And you say I'm hung up on my men. Look at the Vampire Slayer getting all protective over a vampire. A former lover, I assume?"

Buffy knelt down, grabbed a glob of greasy hair, and yanked back Anita's head. "That is not your concern, bitch. Now, I want you to release Spike."

"It's not that easy!" Anita gasped. Her skull felt like it was on fire from Buffy yanking out her hair. "I can't just let him go without killing all of us."

"Then at least rescind your orders. And give up." Buffy glanced at the battle between Richard, Jamil, and Shang-Da against Jean-Claude. "Looks like Jean-Claude isn't doing so hot, anyways." As she spoke Rafael and some of the rats were jumping in as well.

Anita's eyes shone in a moment of realization and she laughed. "You know what I just realized? You kill me; you kill your ex-lover. So guess what? I'm not afraid of you, anymore."

"Oh, dammit!" Buffy screeched, frustrated as all hell by the woman's attitude. "You know, there are plenty of things I can do that would be worse than killing you, you idiot!." Then she couldn't control her temper anymore and slammed her fist into Anita's face, knocking the woman unconscious.

Buffy heard a piercing roar and turned around just in time to see a leopard man hit her and throw her against the floor. She rolled out of the way to escape his claws as she realized that the creature before her must be Micah. Feral yellow eyes glared at her as he pounced on her, but Buffy kicked him off before he could get a swipe in. Cat lycanthropy was hard to catch, but she didn't want to take any chances.

Micah engaged her in hand to hand-- or rather, hand to claw. Buffy kept ducking his claws and managed to get in some blows of her own, but she had to admit he was a pretty badass shifter. Their efforts became frenzied and he landed a kick to her knee, forcing her to fall.

Before he could get in another blow, though, he was tackled by a partially transformed Richard.

"Rafael and my people are fighting Jean-Claude. You help them with the various vamps," he grunted to Buffy as he sunk a claw into Micah's shoulder.

"You sure?" she asked.

"Oh yes." Richard turned to stare into Micah's cat-like orbs. "This is personal."

~*~*~

Faith was having the time of her life fighting Byron and Requiem. The two might act like some poetic losers from across the pond, but because they were older vamps they had some hardcore skills.

Hers, of course, were better.

Requiem lay on the ground, searching for both of his eyes that she had ripped out. Faith supposed that if he reinserted them, his vampiric magic might reattach them. Nonetheless, it was a comical sight. She just thought that if he was going to keep spouting crappy poetry, then she needed to make sure he would be unable to read anymore of it, anymore.

Hmm. Speaking of which…

She smacked him across the temple and, in his confusion from the heavy blow, he staggered. Snaking an arm around his neck, she pried open his jaw and ripped out his tongue before his teeth could snap closed on her fingers.

After all, it was better to be safe than sorry. Now he couldn't read, write, or speak poetry anymore.

The world was definitely a better place.

Still blind, and now mute, Requiem stayed on the ground, fervently searching for his missing body parts. Byron let out a battle cry and his fists descended upon her in a flurry of body parts. He managed to yank her arm almost to the breaking point before she side-kicked him backwards. Then she engaged Requiem in the deadly dance, and within minutes, his head sailed through the crowd.

However, she had been so distracted by the decapitation that she didn't realize Byron had gotten close enough to stab her in the lower abdomen. Her fist reflexively snapped around and knocked him backwards. Clutching her side, she let out a stream of curses and glared when Spike stepped in front of her.

"Aren't you working for Hoes-R-Us, Spike?" she grumbled.

"Technically, yeah. But it's all in the fine print, love," he smirked.

"Spike," Byron rasped. "Help me take down the slayer."

"Now, mate, you know I don't like you all that much. And besides the fact that you're a wanker, you always bloody preferred Requiem's poetry to mine at our weekly poetry cafe.

And I'm just not the forgiving type."

"Anita ordered you to help us," Byron protested.

"Uh- not quite, mate. She ordered me specifically to help her and Jean-Claude. Not you. And since I saw the Wicked Truth," he smirked in their direction since they were still watching, "manhandle you, I can only surmise that you are working against them and, thus, against Anita."

"But I- They switched their loyalty, you fool!" Byron snarled with anger.

"Gosh, Byron old boy. It's just getting so hard to trust people nowadays. I really shouldn't be taking any chances, you know," the blond vampire announced.

Then Spike let out a malicious laugh, reminiscent of his days when trying to kill the Slayer was his pastime the choice. He raised his hands and golden flames erupted onto Byron's body. Bloodcurdling screams distracted everyone else from their own fights for a moment as they stared at the burning vampire body in fascination. In just a few seconds, he was nothing more than dust.

"Sweet move," Faith complimented him. "But that was my kill," she added in an annoyed tone.

"I know, Peaches, but I figured at any big shindig like this you need a good bonfire."

~*~*~

"Get back here, Dawn!" shouted Giles.

Dawn sent a spell towards one of the werelions that Xander and his new hyena friends were fighting She glanced back and saw a now recovered Willow standing up and preparing for the next spell. Weaving through some dead bodies and dismembered limbs, Dawn made her way back to the protective circle.

"Okay, I'm ready!" she called cheerfully. Anytime that she felt in control of her magic was a good reason for cheerfulness. Even if maybe it was odd to be so happy surrounded by corpses. '_But since they were enemy corpses_,' Dawn thought to herself, '_that was probably okay.'_

Giles glared at her. "Young lady, what have I told you about invoking the Greek Gods? *_Especially_* Boreus!"

Dawn rolled her eyes. "Chill, Giles, its not that first time I've evoked him."

"What?!" the Head Watcher half-screamed in a mix of horror and exasperation.

"Guys, back to the spell?" Willow interjected with a calm expression

~*~*~

Richard eyed Micah with murderous eyes. Ever since he'd first seen the bastard at the Lupinar with Anita, he had wanted to rip his throat out. Finally, he would get his chance.

"I always knew you were intimidated by me," Micah said cruelly. "You were always jealous that Anita chose me and the others over you."

"Intimidated? Never, you spotted bastard. What's intimidating about a man who refuses to stand up for himself and just becomes Anita's 'Yes-Man'?" Richard snarled in response as they circled each other.

"I do what I must to protect my people."

"Including fighting to the death to protect cold-hearted murderers?"

Micah smiled and his canines showed. "It's called being pragmatic, not cold-blooded, Richard. Your failure to acknowledge that just proves how weak you are."

Richard lunged for Micah's face and his claws gouged down the side of his opponent's face, making him almost resemble Asher with his ruined features. Micah retaliated by throwing him against the wall, dazing Richard for a moment. Jumping on him, Micah began choking Richard in his rage. Blood from his facial wounds dripped down into Richard's mouth and the werewolf's beast rejoiced at the taste of fresh blood. His heart sped up and he tossed Micah off of him as if he was a child.

Licking the blood off his lips, Richard graced Micah with a smile.

"Anita and Jean-Claude always said I was a fool for not embracing what I was," he said. "But that's been changing lately. And the taste of your blood..."

Richard took in a deep breath and when he spoke again, his voice deepened into a near-growl. "I know who I am, now. I am the Ulfric of the Thronnos Rokke Clan. And I will be the man to kill you."

With a roar, the two dominant weres leaped forward in a clash of claw and muscle. Micah exerted all of his strength and skill, but he could not keep up with the enraged werewolf's attacks. Finally, Richard sat on Micah's stomach and successfully pinned his arms.

"You are ready to end my life?" rasped Micah. "Even after all your protests about the evils of murder?"

Richard smiled, content with his actions. "This is not murder. This is the law of the jungle, leopard."

Canines fully extended from the continued change, his mouth flashed down to Micah's neck, and he grunted with gratification as his teeth tore the Nimir-Raj's throat and he swallowed the hot and bitter flesh.

~*~*~

It seemed that the rodere and pack members were sufficiently subduing Jean-Claude and Asher, but Buffy thought it would be fun to help beat down the vamp who threatened her and her family. However, she also saw that Anita's eyes were blinking open.

'_It wouldn't do to ignore my best new friend,_' she though darkly as she changed direction and went towards Anita.

The brunette's face was covered with dried blood from her broken nose, both of her arms hung at strange angles, and there were interesting looking bruises canvassing her body. Her dark brown eyes glared at Buffy with a deep, searing hatred.

"Slayer," she spat as blood flew from her mouth.

"Anita, it's been fun and all kicking your ass, but I'm ready to move on to some bigger game, like your precious boyfriend. So I think it's time I escort you to Dolph and he locks your ass up," Buffy said as she yanked Anita and threw her over her shoulder. She'd just began carrying her towards the staircase when Buffy felt a sharp pain in her back. She dropped Anita and winced. Reaching around, she found a small knife protruding from her upper back. Wheezing, Buffy knew that Anita had punctured a lung.

Anita Blake laughed scornfully. "Should have checked me for weapons, bitch."

"You really are a backstabbing ho," Buffy grunted as she pulled the knife out.

Immediately, blood began to spill down her back but she knew her slaying healing powers would kick in soon. Turning to face her assailant, Buffy kicked her and the necromancer flew to the middle of the room, just where Spike was.

"Spike!" shouted Anita. "I demand that you kill Buffy by choking her! Or stabbing her!"

"No!" he shouted with a thread of desperation. Nonetheless, his feet began involuntarily moving towards Buffy's direction.

"Take the order back or I swear I will torture you for a hundred days before I grant you death!" he grunted, his voice strained by his internal struggle to evade her orders.

"Spike," Buffy stated simply. "You can fight back. I don't want to kill you, not after flying all the way here to rescue you *_and_* getting blood all over a brand new outfit."

He got closer and she punched him. Behind her, Nathaniel the wereleopard grabbed her hair and punched her bleeding back wound, and Buffy gasped with the shock of the pain and fell to the floor.

"That's what you get for hurting my Anita," the dancer growled- his face already beginning the transformation.

"Dam-" Buffy was cut off by the feel of Spike's hands enclosing around her neck.

His eyes shed tears of regret as he looked at her. "I'm sorry, Buffy. I can't stop."

"Try!" she wheezed.

Her eyes darted around the room. Didn't anyone even notice her predicament? Giles, Dawn, and Willow were busy casting the next spell, Xander was in a fight with the blue-haired werelion while being supported by Andrew, and Faith was fighting Jean-Claude and Asher with the rest of the wolves and rats.

Kicking and struggling, Buffy was already having a difficult time, thanks to her punctured lung. Her vision began to darken as less and less oxygen was reaching her brain.

The last thing she saw was Spike's mournful face.

* * *

**A/N:**

Yes, Yes, I am evil for leaving it here… *grins*

Feedback is encouraged and appreciated! I always love hearing people's favorite parts :D

_**Death Toll:**_

Damian (staked)-- Faith

Valentina (ratted and squashed) -- Dawn

Nathaniel's creepy hair -- Spike

London (Decapitated) -- Buffy

Caleb (Eviscerated) -- Buffy

Elizabeth (Killed by the North Wind God through flaying) - Dawn

Narcissus (Castrated, Stabbed in the heart) -- Andrew

Crispin (Eviscerated) -- Xander

Domino (Eviscerated)-- Sylvie

Requiem (Eyeballs ripped out, tongue ripped out, decapitated) -- Faith

Byron (Magically burned) -- Spike

Micah (Throat ripped out and munched on) -- Richard

-------------- _**Regarding Votes: **_Micah got 4 Kill votes and 6 Redeem votes… I admit, my artistic license decided to go ahead with his murder regardless… He's just a 2-dimensional character who is like the counter-part to Anita's Mary Sue-ness where he agrees to everything she says and he's shady. And because LKH released a novel all about him that was annoying… Yeah, sorry, I don't like him. Oh, plus Richard *_so* deserved to kill him :D_


	14. Resignation Notice

Chapter 14: Termination Notice

**Author Notes:**

**With so many characters (and with people reading who may not be familiar with all the books) here is a quick ID key of who is present to lessen confusion:**

**Vampires**: Spike, JC, Asher, Requiem, _Wicked and Truth, _Byron, London

**Wolves: **_Richard, Shang-Da, Jamil, Sylvie, Jason, several others_

**Leopards**: Micah, Nathaniel, Caleb, Elizabeth, Noah

**Hyenas**: Narcissus and underlings (_Remus, Dionysus, Ixion, and Bacchus)_

**Tigers**: Crispin & Domino

**Lions**: Haven and several others

**Rats**: _Rafael, Claudia, others _

With so many characters interacting I am including '~*~*~' to separate the scenes just for organizational purposes.

Mad thanks, as always, to my beta Greywizard. He is Ma-aaaaaavelous, darlings ;)

* * *

Xander grunted as the Elmo on Steroids Dude clocked him across the face. His body flew across the floor and with it, his guns. Weaponless, he pushed himself back to his feet, using the wall nearest him, to see his opponent grinning at him.

"What are you so happy about?" he grumbled. "Did the Blue Man Group finally accept your application?"

The werelion with bright blue hair cocked his head and let out a confused, "Huh?"

"Not the brightest kitty cat, are ya?" Xander quipped with a grin. "Lemme guess, you're one of the paid thug types, aren't ya?"

The werelion roared furiously and reached for Xander. Ducking, Xander spun in the opposite direction to avoid him, but the lion moved too quickly for him to avoid and gripped Xander's shoulders from behind.

"I think it's time you got to see the thug side of me," Haven snarled.

Xander was still unsure what was up with the random displays of power he'd been having. Sure, he had been possessed by a hyena once. And yes, he did spend twenty-two years living above a mystical force of evil energy. But he had never experienced anything like tonight before in his life. Then again, he reflected, this was the first time ever he had been around so many weres. Heck, previously, the only one he had met was Oz. But the raw animal energy in this room had tapped into a part of him- he could feel that curl of power resting inside.

Hence, he wasn't really worried about his current situation.

Mustering that power within him, he spoke with strong conviction. "Release me, lion."

The werelion bristled angrily. "You think you can order *_me_* around? I am Haven, Rex of the Lions. You have no power over me."

'_Okay_,' Xander thought. '_It worked on the leopard, kinda on the rat, and the hyenas. Apparently not this dude, though_.' That left Xander with only one option- relying on the skills he'd gained from training with slayers for the last twelve years of his life.

Xander jumped forward against the wall and kicked off, landing behind Haven. Both of his fists slammed into Haven's kidneys and he kicked the back of his opponent's knee to break his balance. Haven grunted with pain and stooped, but didn't fall- he was tough. With his left hand, Xander hit Haven's temple three times in quick succession, but the lion snatched his hand and quickly bent it back, breaking Xander's wrist.

Hissing in pain, Xander fell to his knees to relieve the pressure on his wrist and side-kicked Haven in the face. His wrist was released and Xander quickly jumped to his feet. With a ferocious snarl, Haven leapt on top of him and knocked him to the ground as he brandished a gleaming silver knife he'd produced from behind his back.

"Not bad," Haven grunted in appreciation. "But you don't have what it takes, boy. These other weres think you're something special, but I think both you and I know the truth."

Wincing, Xander stared up at the man pinning him to the floor. "What truth's that, Elmo? That you have secret homoerotic fantasies about the lacey-shirted vampire dude over there? Cause if so- totally cool. I understand the whole 'Don't ask, don't tell' thing."

Haven punched him in the chest. "No, fool! The truth that you are nobody! And you're going to die as nobody."

The knife flashed down and Xander managed to grab it with his right hand. The knife shook unsteadily as it hovered above Xander's chest, the two of them each struggling to overpower the other. His mind flashed back to all the moments when Willow tried to explain her relationship to magic- saying that she simply found the energy within the earth, pulled it within herself, and cast it on the object of her spell. Now he desperately tried to do the same thing with the hyena primal spirit that still, evidently, lived within him.

Touching on that space in his midsection where it seemed to pulse, he began mentally pulling and stretching that power until its warmth extended throughout him. As it reached his hand, the surge in strength forced the knife upwards until it slashed into Haven's chin, making the werelion's eyes quickly narrow in anger and outrage.

Xander, meanwhile, was pleased with his power surge but also surprised by the sudden strength that coursed through him. As the drops of blood dripped on him from Haven's chin, Xander's stomach clenched- and not in a 'blood makes me queasy' way. Suddenly, Xander felt a strong urge to lap up the bleeding wound. The knife slashed upwards again, almost without his thinking about it, as Xander shanked Haven's upper chest. The werelion growled, punched Xander, and rolled away from him to the side.

Xander's senses sharpened as his gaze narrowed on his opponent. Utilizing quick jabs with his knife, Xander darted around Haven like a boxer. On his fifth jab, Haven caught the knife-wielding hand and thrust it towards Xander's throat. Although Xander could more or less hold his own in a fight, his eyes bulged as he realized the speed with which the knife flew towards him.

And then the knife did fly -- upwards and over his head. Blinking in surprise, Xander saw Haven lying on the floor with a triumphant Andrew's arms wrapped around the werelion's waist.

"That'll teach you! No one messes with my Xander friend!" Andrew shouted before Haven furiously slammed him aside.

"Hey, thanks, Andrew," Xander said with a genuine smile. Sometimes the kid really did make him happy that they would take him along on trips.

"No problem, Xander. Besides, if you died, then who would play D&D with me back at HQ?"

Yeah… And then the kid would come out and say things that made Xander regret that they let him out at all.

~*~*~

Willow, Giles, Dawn, and Tammy held hands as they stood within their protective circle. The voices echoed with strength as they began the incantation to sever Anita's second triumvirate.

"Gaia hear our a triumvirate was . Necromancer. together these three,Granting power that shouldn't be.A link was formed,Humanity was became the bind,Enough to withstand hear our the offered blood,Of Vampire, Necromancer, Leopard. Sever their ties,Separate their each their own,Never more may they it will end,And may Your Will never bend."

A collective gasp went up as the magical energy exploded from their circle. All four casters slumped and struggled to catch their breath. As the focus for both of the two previous spells, Willow was once again looking tired.

"Will? How are things? We have to hurry up and free Spike, remember," Dawn reminded the other witch.

"I know, Dawnie," Willow said with deep, gasping breaths. "I'm just a 'li'l tired, that's all." Her eyelids fluttered. "Maybe just a quick cat nap," she said in a drowsy voice.

"Oh no, you don't!" admonished Dawn. "Larry! Grab me Xander's bag, that purple backpack over there!"

"Sure," responded Larry as he handed Dawn the bag. Quickly, she began rummaging through it. "Come on Xander, don't let me down now," she muttered as Tammy and Giles gave her quizzical looks. "Aha!" she exclaimed triumphantly as she pulled out a can. Popping the tab, she held it against Willow's lips until the witch began drinking it.

"What's that stuff?" Tammy asked Giles. "Is that some witches brew?"

Giles sighed as he pulled off his glasses to clean them. "No, not quite, I'm afraid," he murmured. "Something far more foul tasting."

"Oh my God, what?" asked Tammy with wide eyes, a semi-horrified expression on her face.

"Oh my Goddess, Giles. Drama Queen much?" Dawn rolled her eyes as she turned to Tammy. "I gave her a Starbucks Double Shot Expresso. Willow is a real caffeine fiend, so she should be ready to go in a minute."

Giles did some eye rolling of his own as he replaced his glasses. "Ah yes, Starbucks. I swear I have it on good authority that their CEO is a demon of some sort- non-predatory, of course," he noted parenthetically.

"Regardless, I much prefer Taster's Choice myself."

~*~*~

A blast of heat hit him harder than the amulet that he'd used to close the Hellmouth, and Spike dropped to the floor as his body curled in pain, a part of him gratefully realizing that he was releasing Buffy's throat from the stranglehold Anita had forced him to use.

The triumvirate that Anita had forced him into earlier this evening had continued trickling its power into Spike's body, even as the other events of the evening had unfolded. Now, though, it felt like someone was doing a wax job on his very soul as some force ripped away the same power that Anita had channeled into him previously.

As he writhed in pain, he saw through slitted eyes that Anita and Nathaniel were experiencing a similar amount of pain.

'_Serves those wankers right_,' he though with a vindictive grin before another wave of pain tore into him.

~*~*~

Meanwhile, Xander's fight continued against Haven, as Andrew assisted him in his own fashion. Without even needing to look in their direction, Xander knew that his hyenas were taking on the other lions from Haven's Pride.

Wait a minute - his hyenas?

A small part of Xander's mind thought it was strange that he now thought of the hyenas as 'his,' but the other, more practical, side focused on the fight.

Haven swung his fist and knocked down Andrew, who fell with a heavy thud against the floor. His fist then flew at Xander, but the one-time carpenter easily evaded the lion's attack. Taking advantage of his surroundings, Xander kicked Haven's stomach, making him stumble backwards and he promptly tripped over Andrew.

"Oof," Andrew moaned piteously, even as his hand, halfway pinned by Haven's broad torso, waved something shiny.

"Here, take it, Xand," he croaked. "Use the fiend's own weapon against him!" he urged in what he hoped sounded like a heroic proposal.

Xander back-slapped Haven across the face and snatched the item Andrew had been waving- a small dagger that already was dirtied with dried blood. Without a second thought, Xander plunged the dagger into Haven's throat, ripping it open and splattering them both with gouts of blood.

"Good job," Andrew wheezed. "But, ah, can you get this dude off me now? Please? He weighs more than an oliophant from the Lord of the Rings!"

But Xander wasn't listening. Saliva thickened in his mouth as he reflexively leaned over the bleeding body. That primal force within him was screaming at him to taste his defeated opponent- his rightful kill.

"Xander! Snap out of it!" Andrew cried as the seemingly obsessed man leaned closer to Haven's bleeding neck. "Look! Look over there! Buffy's on the ground, Xand! We gotta help her!"

Xander paused as his brain slowly registered Andrew's words- With every part of his being wanting to bury his face in the oozing blood, it was as though Andrew's words traveled through Jello to reach him. But once they did, his head immediately jerked up and his eyes darted around the room until he saw her.

"Buffy?," he whispered, a horrified expression crossing his face before he rushed towards her.

"Uh- Xander?" Andrew plaintively called. "I said *_we_* needed to help her…

"Couldn't you have gotten this guy off of me, first? He weighs a ton," Andrew sighed as he began to slowly shove the massive man off of him.

~*~*~

"Okay, you guys ready? 'Cause I'm ready, Freddy," Willow said with a silly grin. "Time to kick a little necromancer ass, huh? Or, well, metaphysical ass." A giggle escaped her lips. "Which, actually, I wouldn't mind to kick her actual ass because, even though I usually let Buffy be the violent one in our friendship, I really wouldn't mind fighting her. 'Cause, you know I normally don't like to call me fellow females names- except for maybe Cordelia once or twice, okay maybe a lot- but I gotta say that this Anita Blake girly is a definite skanky ho. And-"

Giles grabbed her shoulder. "Willow, dear, do you think we might possibly begin the spell now? So that we can free Spike from that woman's influence before she awakens again?"

A chagrin expression flashed across her features. "Oh. Yeah. Gotcha, Giles. You know me and caffeine, sometimes the babble starts trickling out and ya just gotta-"

"Stop you. Physically if need be. Ready, Will," Dawn prompted her mentor with a smile. It was certainly not the time nor place, but Babbly Willow always gave her warm fuzzies.

Once again, the four magic users linked hands and began their incantation.

"Goddess Isis, Star of the Sea,

Please listen to our plea.

She Who Seeks Justice for the Poor,

Filter your magic through the mystical door.

A vampire exited this world, crumbled to dust,

Only to be resurrected through your sense of what is just.

Yet he has been taken against his will,

By one who thoughtlessly orders him to kill.

Her power keeps him alive,

But of free will it does deprive.

Under her rule there is no escape,

And he is subjected to metaphysical rape.

Take him, Goddess Isis, to your breast,

Where this Champion may finally rest.

Sever his servitude from Anita Blake,

And give him back what she did take."

~*~*~

"Buffy?" Xander whispered hoarsely. "Buffy?" His inner animal had quickly receded once he saw her still form. A finger gently ran down her throat as he sought to find a pulse. "Come on, Lady of Buffdom, Duchess of Buffonia, this is not the place for you to be dyin' on me."

Xander's heart jumped when Buffy let out a dry cough.

"Xand?" she croaked.

"I'm right here, Buff."

"Spike?" she asked.

His blood pressure involuntarily rose at the mention of Spike- If Buffy hadn't felt the need to come to St. Louis because of him, his best friend would not be recovering from a near-fatal attack. Xander glanced around and he saw the vampire was lying motionless on the floor, along with that Anita Blake chick, and some dude with cat-like claws.

"Passed out, along with that skank and one of her girly-boys, but otherwise, he looks okay," he informed her.

"Good," Buffy grunted with relieved satisfaction. "Ugh, help me up."

Gingerly, Buffy stood up with Xander's help.

"Yo, B! You all good?" called out an approaching Faith, who was flanked by the vampires Wicked and Truth.

Buffy grinned weakly. "Five by five. Just a little knife wound, got half choked to death - ya know, the usual."

"I'm feeling you on that." Faith said with a smile as she showed off her own new battle wounds.

Glancing on the other side of the room, Buffy saw that Asher and Jean-Claude were tied up separately with heavy chains and closely guarded by Richard, Jamil, Sylvie, Rafael, and a couple wererats she did not recognize.

Everyone involved all looked like hell had frozen over.

Whereas Asher had once had a pretty side, now both sides of his face were disgusting to look at and covered with deep gashes. Jean-Claude struggled to keep his head up to stare at her, but the vampire was obviously fatigued, covered in blood, and his shoulders sat oddly- like they were dislocated.

The weres were not looking much better, but at least they were standing -- except for Shang-Da, who was crouched on the floor tending to a bleeding Jason and several injured wererats.

Aside from the still, but breathing, figures of Anita, Nathaniel, and Spike, every other one of Jean-Claude's men was laying on the ground dead, sometimes in pieces.

Buffy raised an inquisitive brow at Wicked and Truth. "Did you decide to adopt a couple of vampires during your warpath?" she asked Faith.

"Well, B, they just had the cutest puppy dog eyes and you know how I'm a sucker for that," she joked.

"Naw," she then added in a much more serious tone. "Wicked and Truth are five by five. Truth even showed me where Jean-Claude kept his good chains around here."

"Only because you promised that after you no longer needed them for Jean-Claude, we could play with them," Truth remarked lightly with a devilish grin.

Faith pursed her lips and rolled her eyes. "I tell ya, B, men, regardless of the species, only have one thing on their mind."

"Like you don't?" Xander muttered under his breath.

"What was that, Xander?" Faith asked in a deceptively sweet tone, and Xander suddenly appeared to be very interested in a spot of blood he was rubbing off his shirt.

"Hey, guys," Willow said softly in her 'I-just-channeled-some-seriously-major power-and-am-drunk-from-the-effects' voice. She had her arms slung around Dawn and Giles' shoulder as she staggered in their general direction and Tammy, Larry, and Dolph followed them. Andrew also made his way to the central group.

"Excellent job, people," Dolph observed with a huge smile. "My aunt always told me stories about what Slayers could do but, damn, you guys went all out. I cannot wait until the paper pushers rescind your terrorist status and we can legalize you guys and start working with you."

"Me, either," Buffy remarked with a bemused smile. It would be wonderful to return to California- she could hardly wait to escape England's dreary weather!

The three former triumvirate members began to slowly sit up as the others spoke.

Anita gasped in horrified and disbelieving shock as she took in the blood-soaked room -- she couldn't believe that so many of her men had died! Every cell in her body screamed at her to kill Buffy Summers, but with her current injuries, she knew it was physically impossible for her to fight. Blood dripped down her right cheek where Buffy had carved the letter 'B', while her body screamed in pain from two broken arms, a crushed hand , broken nose, and several ribs were broken. Not to mention the fact that she was layered in bruises that ranged from purple to black to green.

"Looks like our friends are waking up," Buffy muttered as she noticed Anita moving, her voice still raspy from the near choking experience.

"Spike," Anita commanded in a steely voice. "Kill Buffy and all of her friends through the bloodiest means possible."

Spike jerked up and, instantly, the Scoobies were tensed in battle positions.

"You know, Spike, I'm starting to wonder what's wrong with your mind that allows evil things to control it so easily- first the, well the First, and now this skank-ess, Anita," remarked Xander with an angry glare at the vampire.

"At least the First was creative," Dawn offered dryly. "Anita's super lame by comparison."

But Spike surprised the Scoobies by walking back towards Anita. Their stances relaxed slightly as they watched him.

Anita's eyes widened in surprise. "Spike," she addressed him angrily. "I told you to kill them. Kill them all now!"

Willow, Dawn, Giles, and Tammy all shared a secret smile as they watched.

Spike chuckled and the sound sent shivers through the necromancer.

"Spike," she stated authoritatively as he reached her. "Do not forget that *_you_* work for *_me_*!"

With an evil grin, Spike grasped Anita's throat and lifted her up in the air.

"Yeah, about that 'me working for you business'," he smirked at her.

"Consider this my termination notice, bitch," he snarled as he tossed her against the wall.

* * *

A/N:

Dearest readers, it seems our time is drawing to a close. A couple more chapters remain as the fate of Anita Blake- and her harem- will be revealed.

Thank you to everyone who has been reading and commenting- It is always appreciated more than you can know. Please continue writing reviews and letting me know what you think! I hope you are all continuing to enjoy the story!!!!!

PS: I hope you especially enjoyed the spells- I probably spent the most time of this chapter thinking how to make a meaningful spell ;) But it was quite fun. I like to spend my time making up a rhyme- Mayhaps I shall become a rapper… Fo shizzle, bizzles ;)

_**;) Still Ah-Ah-Ah-Ah Stayin' Alive, Stayin' Alive! (regarding those characters who were received 'Kill' Votes and 'Redeem' Votes)**_

-Claude

6. Richard

_**Death Toll:**_

1. Damian (staked)-- Faith

2. Valentina (ratted and squashed) -- Dawn

3. Nathaniel's creepy hair -- Spike

4. London (Decapitated) -- Buffy

5. Caleb (Eviscerated) -- Buffy

6. Elizabeth (Killed by the North Wind God through flaying) - Dawn

7. Narcissus (Castrated, Stabbed in the heart) -- Andrew

8. Crispin (Eviscerated) -- Xander

9. Domino (Eviscerated)-- Sylvie

10. Requiem (Eyeballs ripped out, tongue ripped out, decapitated) -- Faith

11. Byron (Magically burned) -- Spike

12. Micah (Throat ripped out and munched on) -- Richard

13. Haven (Stabbed in the throat)-- Xander, with an assist by Andrew

_**Resources**_:

Taster's Choice-- .com/watch?v=hpOBFELO0Qc Anthony Stewart Head starred in this commercial series. Quite popular in the- what?- late 80s/early 90s.

2nd Spell-- .org/wiki/Isis I chose Isis because the Ancient Egyptians thought of her as the Goddess of Motherhood and Magic, a perfect deity to pray to in order to give a vampire back his life.


	15. Downfall of the Patron St of Skankiness

**Chapter 15: The Downfall of the Patron St. of Skankiness**

Anita groaned as she rolled away from the wall to look up at him Spike.

"Res-resignation no-notice?" she stammered in confusion. Her head was pounding from the wall impact and actual fear had seized hold of her heart, forcing it to speed with every breath.

She saw him flash her a smirk and suddenly, Anita realized that she couldn't feel him anymore. Always before, since she had resurrected him, she had felt a piece of him within her- a small intangible chill within her spirit that let her know she was tied to the vampire. But that presence was gone now.

Which could only mean one thing.

The witches had successfully severed their tie so that he was no longer her vampire servant. At least, she reassured herself, she still had her second triumvirate. Searching within herself, she began looking for her connections to Spike and Nathaniel. Surely, if she could tap into their power then she could get all of her loves out of this place.

Her heart lurched as her second realization in the last minute slapped her across the face. – W where a bit of Nathaniel and Spike had once resided within her, she felt nothing.

All that existed within her mind now was her, Anita Blake. Nothing more.

"No," she breathed out softly, as close to a sob as Anita Blake ever would come to in front of her enemies.

Spike flashed the bitch r a victorious smile. Damn, it felt good to be alive, he smirked to himself. Or undead, or whatever. For the first time since Anita resurrected him, he could no longer feel her in his head- he was free.

"Ye-ye-yeah, you little strumpet," he sneered at her. "Looks like the witches fixed me up good and proper and I'm not your little drummer boy anymore." His heart warmed, (figuratively speaking of course_, at the munter's expression of distress.

"Well now, looks like that's settled. Here you go, Ms. Summers." Dolph lifted up a pair of handcuffs. "Would you like to do the honors?"

"According to your laws, Sergeant, shouldn't Ms. Blake face execution for her use of magic to conduct in an attempted murder?" Giles interrupted, his eyes calmly studying Anita.

"Since she used her necromancy on Spike to order him murder Buffy and us?" he added reminded the detective. An ember of rage sparked higher as he studied Anita's smug expression and thought of her actions. His 'Ripper' side kept threatening ed to surface at each time the thought of that woman trying to kill a woman who was like his own daughter passed through his mind.

Dolph bit his lip in contemplation and Larry gave him an earnest look. "Sarge, please," the redheaded animator-witch asked. "I came here because I know that Anita and Jean-Claude were violating the law, but I can't not stand by and watch her be executed. She may have done some awful things, but I don't think this is right."

Buffy pursed her lips as she listened to the other talk. As a rule, she did not kill humans. Even when Ethan Rayne had, several times, inflicted chaos into her world she could never even think of killing him. Anita, on the other hand, had definitely pissed her off more in one evening then Ethan ever did. Nonetheless…

Well, she did still have one trick up her sleeve. But would Blake take the bait?

Glancing over at the seething necromancer, Buffy snorted in amusement. { Yeah, she probably would, } she thought to herself.

"How about we just not worry about that now? I should really lock her up first." Holding out her hand, Buffy gave him Dolph a smile that dripped with sweetness. "Why thank you, Sergeant," she said as he dropped the cuffs in her palm.

She twirled the cuffs around her index finger as she then practically skipped towards Anita.

"Say good-bye to blue skies, your hooker shoes, and pirate orgy parties, and say hello to a tiny little cell, drab outfits, and Big Bertha, Anita,." she told the skank with a wide smile.

With a gasp of pain, Anita stood as Buffy approached. "You bitches really think you're clever, don't you? Taking us all out, taking me in. You think you've won,." the necromancer snarled at her enemy.

With a snort of laughter Buffy just shook her head. "I read your case file and knew you were the egotistical sort, but they said you were intelligent.

"Obviously, you're not," she said in a scornful voice, "because we don't' *think* we won, we *did* just win, you moron."

Darkness bled into Anita's eyes until they gleamed like black obsidian. "You may have fucked me up physically, but not metaphysically, bitch." She laughed internally at how ill-prepared these vampire slayers and Dolph were.

Didn't they know who she was? They may have severed her two triumvirates and stole both of her vampire servants, but she was still packing power. It all seemed so simple to her now. Just like with Chimera, she would drain the woman before her, use that energy to heal herself, Jean-Claude and Asher, and they'd all escape. It was almost sad how stupid they were.

Buffy's spine straightened in shock as a blast of magic hit her. It felt like she had fallen into ice water - as pinpricks of pain stabbed every part of her and her breath caught in her throat. She had been expecting Anita to try this, but she had not expected it to come so quickly and without warning!

Maybe she had underestimated the bitch, after all.

Anita let out a low laugh that dripped with power. "What's the matter, Slayer? You were making with the wisecracks earlier?" Buffy moaned and Anita glanced towards the others who began fidgeting with their weapons.

"Don't try anything! You have no idea how quickly I can kill her!" Anita called frantically warned them with a snarl of hatred.

Anita leaned in close to Buffy and began speaking quietly to her.

"You sounded so clinical earlier when you talked about my powers," she began gloating. "I'm not sure how you knew about my power transference with the Master Vampire down in New Mexico, but you did. O I only have one question for you, bitch - What does it feel like to get your own power sucked out until you're nothing but a dry husk?"

Buffy groaned as she strained to move her hand to grasp onto the necklace that she had been hiding in her shirt all night. When the Scoobies had done the research thing earlier, as they'd been setting up their mission, they knew that Anita had one power that might pose a real problem for them if she used it. By us After scouring some of oldest texts on vampire powers and counter-spells, they'd finally found one that they hoped would help.

And it was currently located in her necklace -- a silver locket. (Of course, Buffy had been pissy about wearing silver since gold was much more her style, but Willow had given her the 'Resolve Face,' Xander had kept urging her to be cautious and Dawn had just kept on whining until she'd finally agreed).

The pain was almost overwhelming now and Buffy found that she was weakening as her life force began escaping, but soon after just a few agonizing seconds, the necklace was in her hands. Ripping it off her neck, she dropped it to the floor.

A slow smile slid across Buffy's face as she looked up into the former witch's baffled eyes. "I don't know, Anita. How about you tell me?"

Anita's face wrinkled with confusion at her odd statement.

Then Buffy's foot stomped down on the necklace and red dust wafted into the air. Upon impact contact with the spell, it exploded in a series of sparks that threw knocked Buffy back and tore the most animalistic scream from Anita's throat.

Strong arms lifted Buffy up as she began coughing from inhaling some spell components. She steadied herself by grabbing a man's arm and looked up into his face.

"Spike," she said softly. Closing her eyes briefly, she stepped back from him and a hurt expression filled his face.

"I'm fine," she said sternly as she waved off his look. Buffy knew that he had been under Anita's control, but a part of her did not want him touching her at all, not after choking her. A yeah, she knew he'd been forced to do so, but a shiver of fear still ran down her back at that memory.

"So what did you do to the bird?" he asked after an second's awkward pause.

Buffy smiled as she looked at Anita. "A "Just gave her a taste of her own medicine," she answered darkly.

Anita was encased in a ball of mystical fire that was reflecting back w the energy that she had unleashed on Buffy. Shrieks of pain and terror bounced off the stone walls as she twitched on the ground, curled into a fetal position.

"No! Anita!" Jean-Claude cried out in fear.

"Leave her alone!" Asher snarled.

A pained expression took hold on Jason's face as he watched one of his best friends being consumed by some sort of magic. He jerked up to go to her ,but Richard viciously yanked his arms back.

"As your Ulfric, I command you. Do not interfere with the Slayers!," he growled, his body still partially transformed from previous fighting.

Nathaniel began crying and jerking around in his metal bounds, with Wicked and Truth holding him down.

Eventually, the pyrotechnics show faded and only Anita's motionless body lay on the ground.

"You killed her! You killed Anita," Nathaniel sobbed.

Xander smirked and looked down at Nathaniel. "You hear that, kid?"

Nathaniel looked up with a guarded expression. "What?" he asked tentatively.

With his fingers, he mimicked playing a tiny violin. "That's the sound of the smallest violin – playing just for ya."

Nathaniel lurched forward to attack Xander, but Truth held him back easily.

"Don't start crying," Buffy said disdainfully. Honestly, she did not understand what was up with these guys!. Maybe Spike was right and Anita really did have a magical va-jay-jay?. Shaking her head in resigned disbelief, she stalked towards Anita and knelt next to here. "She's still alive."

To prove it, Buffy slapped Anita across the face. When the woman didn't respond, she slapped her again. Her The brunette's eyes flickered open and Buffy slapped her again.

"Hey. Hey!" Anita choked out. "I'm awake."

"Oh. Well, that's good." Buffy slapped her again – just because she felt like it, this time – and grinned. Okay, maybe it wasn't honorable to slap your downed opponent, but the hag *_had_* tried to kill her after all.

"Will? Did it work?" Buffy asked her friend.

Willow held a hand up in the air and began searching Anita's aura. Her hand dropped to her side and she smiled. "Yes, indeedy.," she nodded confirmation. "We did it."

As Anita's mind began clearing up, she sat up- and quickly regretted the move because he body screamed in pain. "What did you bitches do to me?" she demanded angrily.

Buffy smiled, and it was not a nice smile -- not in the least. "Just what you tried to do to me."

Anita closed her eyes as she tried to process her next moves. Her mind and body felt incredibly heavy -- like she was swimming in quicksand. Then she chided herself for her faulty planning. This entire night, she had relied on the powers she had gained through her lovers- using that magically gained strength and speed, and she had even used Itzpapalotl's power.

'_When what I should really have done'_, she thought as her eyes surveyed the room full of dead bodies, '_I should have is just raise d everyone that they killed as zombies_.' She smirked and once again, she feared nothing.

Mentally, she went into that part of herself that had always held her connection to the dead.

A knowing smile played on Willow's lips as she saw watched, through her own use of magic, Anita try to raise the dead. As Anita's eyes flashed open to expose a deep sense of horror, Willow could not help but laugh. "Trying to raise some zombies, Miss world-class animator?" she asked innocently.

"Aw, how cute," Buffy mocked Anita. "You thought you had a trick up your sleeve."

"What did you do to me?" Anita cried and she didn't even recognize the sound of her own voice, it was so filled with panic and fear.

"I'm rubber and your glue, whatever you say bounces off me and sticks to you," Buffy sing-songed the old children's refrain and then laughed as she stared at the would-be zombie queen. "Your powers backfired, chickie. I'm not a Girl Scout or anything, but you best believe, d I came prepared for that little spell of yours. It was what you first became known for, before you started this whole other choosing-the-monsters-over-people scene, remember?"

Anita blinked away tears. Her whole life, she had possessed a connection to the dead. It was the only thing she had that connected her to her mother's side of the family. And now, it was gone. Her spirit felt diminished, darkened by the hole their spell had left her with.

As she continued her mental exploration, she realized just how big of a hole she had in her from the events of the night.

*Everything* felt different now.

No longer could she feel the icy sweep of Jean-Claude's mind against her own. No longer could she feel the warmth that Richard gave off. No longer did she feel the loving caress of Nathaniel's spirit or the calmness of Damian's mind or even the searing hostility of Spike.

No longer did her body share space with the metaphysical tigers, lion, wolf, and leopard.

The ardeuer ardeur no longer strained for sexual satisfaction.

It was all gone.

Everything.

Anita Blake wrapped her arms around her bent knees and began sobbing.

~*~*~

Buffy looked down at her with pity. It was almost sad to see Anita reduced to this.

*Almost* sad, being the key term.

Overall, Buffy felt a sense of satisfaction from Anita's pain. True, she had originally come to St. Louis to save Spike, but after learning about what types of things had happened here and how a human woman could so easily commit such senseless crimes, Buffy was extremely grateful with tonight's turnout.

Buffy grabbed Anita's wrists and clasped the handcuffs on her. Anita's head lifted up and one brown eye, soaked in sadness, peered between the tendrils of black curls.

"I guess I won't have to be executed anymore, now that I no longer have any magic,." Anita said, a bit hesitantly.

"I know. You can just send me chocolate to thank me," Buffy commented lightly, but her tone was edged with just a smidge of sharpness.

Anita spat at Buffy's face. "I would rather be dead than be without my powers!"

Buffy stilled and calmly wiped the spittle off her chin. She jerked the woman to her feet and pulled her close.

"God, what is your mental defect?" she asked, scowling at the now-depowered woman. "You would rather be dead? Are you insane? You really want power that badly?"

Anita's dark eyes lit with a hidden fire as she stared into Buffy's eyes.

"You have no idea what it's like in this world," she screamed indignantly, "– to be a woman, especially a petite one, to be smart but always having to prove yourself men that you can handle things. I'm nothing without all my powers. I need them."

Her tone was so plaintive that Buffy may have almost so felt pity once again for the former necromancer, – but since the bitch spit in her face, she was *definitely* not.

"Excuse me? We may have taken your powers, you idiot, but you still have your eyeballs." With one hand, Buffy motioned up and down at herself like Vanna White. "I'm only five foot two. My name is Buffy. I used to be a cheerleader and still have the bouncy hair of one. I'm smart, but I always got crappy grades because I didn't think school was a huge priority since I was a little too busy battling the forces of darkness.

"You think *_you_* have it rough?" she half-growled.

Buffy grasped Anita's chin and the woman winced from the amount of strength in the slayer's grip. "Except, whereas I dealt appropriately - *_by slaying vampires_* - you got in cahoots with them and stayed even though you knew the evil things they did, but 'cause you liked your power trips too much. Well, guess what? We've got just a slight detour before your last trip- the one to the big house."

Buffy dragged Anita by her handcuffs to where Nathaniel was and dumped her.

"So Sergeant Dolph- I guess it's time for Jean-Claude now?" Buffy asked brightly.

Dolph's thin smile widened. He had been so relieved that no one would need to kill Anita. -– y Yes, she made him mad as hell - A a part of him even hated her. But another part blamed himself for getting her involved with the monsters in the first part. He would not have been able to live with himself if she died because of a tactical error he'd made years earlier by asking for her help.

Jean-Claude, on the other hand… w Well, he could not wait to see that bastard go up in smoke.

"He's all yours, Ms. Summers. However your team would like to get rid of him."

Anita's eyes widened in horror and terror as they locked with Jean-Claude's. His face remained impassive but his eyes hid his sadness. Asher growled and, even though he was wrapped with heavy chains, had to be restrained by Jason.

"No, no. Please don't," Anita whimpered, too tired mentally and physically to yell or threaten.

Ignoring her, Buffy looked at Faith. "You or me?" she asked.

Faith chewed her lip in thought. "Well, since you were busy with the Patron Saint of Skankiness, you didn't get to kill as many vamps as me, so it would only be fair if you got him."

Buffy grinned. "Sounds good to me."

"Well," Xander said with a drawl. "Look at you girls playing nice. This is like a Kodak moment."

Simultaneously, they stuck out their tongues at him and glared.

"Quiet, Hyena Man," Faith said as she threw a narrow-eyed glare at him.

"Now just wait a bloody minute!" Spike broke in.

"You can't kill that soddin' wanker! I've had to put up with him for six bloody months and I've been wanting to kill him the whole time!" Spike said urgently declared fervently.

With a roll of her eyes, Buffy turned to him. "Yeah, and we flew three thousand miles to come save *_you_*, Spike. And we got stabbed, and punched, and *_choked_* in the process."

Spike's head lowered shamefully before he met her eyes again.

"I'm sorry about that, pet. I would have stopped if I could've."

Their gazes locked for a moment as Buffy studied him. "I know," she said softly.

"But I still get to kill the Master," she said in a louder voice. "It's one of the perks of being the leader."

Spike pursed his lips but then nodded his agreement. "Bloody fine. But I want to kill the other poofy shirted bastard."

Buffy's lips quirked up into a smile. "That would be fine. Where's a sword? Mine got lost somewhere"

"Here ya go!" Dawn offered with a bright smile as she held up one.

With narrowed eyes, Buffy took the offered blade. "And just what were you doing with a sword? You know you haven't reached your training level back at the Academy to be allowed to use one."

"I found it!" Dawn cried out defensively and crossed her arms. "Besides, I don't need a sword. I kill baddies by calling up Greek Gods. That's how I took care of that Elizabeth chick."

"Wha-what?" Buffy sputtered. She looked at Giles expectantly.

He sighed as he pulled off his glances to begin cleaning them. "Don't bloody well look at me. She's made from your blood and apparently with it, she inherited both your lack of impulse control and your bloody respect for authority."

Buffy sighed and thought better than to continue the conversation. She walked up to Jean-Claude who was cast in iron chains and held down by Richard, Rafael, the blond-haired female wererat, and Sylvie. The other weres clustered around, except for Jason who held back Asher.

"Any last words, Jean-Claude?" Buffy asked with an insincere sweet smile.

"I love you, Anita, forever. Remember that. And Asher, I will always love you as well." Now no fear or sadness hid in his eyes, only steely resolve.

Buffy frowned. "Now that was unrepentantly sweet. Who would have known you had a heart? Hmm. Guess I should check to make sure."

Her sword flashed downwards and speared Jean-Claude's heart. Anita, Nathaniel, and Asher all cried out in grief. Jean-Claude's mouth widened to let out one final breath and his eyes froze in an anguished expression.

"Guess you had one after all," Buffy murmured. Buffy She then pulled the sword out and promptly hacked off Jean-Claude's head, which tumbled behind him, as a spray of blood shot out, covering the four weres and Buffy.

"Ooops, sorry guys. Guess slayage is like Sea World- the first row gets soaked," she quipped.

There was a flash of movement to the side and suddenly Asher was at the exit holding Jason in a stranglehold. "Come after me and the wolf dies," he declared before anyone moved.

His murderous gaze turned in Buffy's direction. "I will have my revenge, Slayer."

Then his eyes found Anita. "Anita, my sweet, you are safe for now. Someday, I will return for you." Then he ran backwards as he held Jason in front of him.

Rafael went into immediate security guy mode as he barked out orders to his rats, the wolves, and the hyenas to head to the roof and other exits in order to monitor Asher's escape. Soon, all the weres were gone except for Rafael, Richard, and Nathaniel.

Richard's head lowered and Buffy ran her hand across his upper back to soothe her.

"We'll get him back, Richard,." She said consolingly.

Deep chocolate eyes stared back at her. "I hope so. I don't think Asher would ever harm Jason- the boy meant too much to Jean-Claude. In fact, I had to literally order Jason to fight because he didn't want to hurt Jean-Claude or Asher. But who knows?"

She drew her hand across and held his shoulder. "It will work out."

His lips curved into a shy smile as he took her hand off his shoulder and held it. "Thanks to you, a lot of things have been worked out. You cannot imagine how free I feel- all thanks to you."

She shrugged. "It was your decision. I'm just glad you decided to trust us. Who knows what might ay have happened if you and your wolves fought on their side."

Richard let out a deep laugh and his eyes twinkled with mirth. "You probably would have kicked our ass," he said as his arm swept out to showcase the room covered with blood and body parts.

"Well…Yeah," she commented with a wink and a laugh.

His expression immediately sobered up. "I should go and speak to Sylvie and inform the pack about what happened tonight. Will you be leaving soon, now?"

Buffy found her eyes straying to a bleached blond head that was staring at her.

"Not really sure yet," she replied. "I guess we have clean-up control and the legal things to deal with."

"Well, just let me know," he said with a smile before he turned and left.

~*~*~

Dolph directed Larry and Xander to carry Anita to his squad car and for the Rafael and Andrew to transport Nathaniel there. He turned to Giles and shook his hand.

"Thank you, Rupert. This didn't work out as I had imagined, but the job got done, anyway."

Giles smiled at the man. "It always seems to work that way for us. Thank you for working your cooperation. I trust that the actions of the slayers tonight will quickly turnaround invalidate those pesky terrorist labels?"

Dolph nodded. "My man on the inside of the system promised it."

"Excellent," Giles said as his new associate exited the room.

~*~*~  
"Thank you," Willow said kindly to smiled at Tammy as they began making their goodbyes. "The spells tonight may not have worked without you."

Tammy chuckled. "Trust me, I'm sure bet they would have." She gave a low whistle. "I have never participated in anything like this before, but one thing is for sure- you've got some power in you."

Willow's cheeks reddened. "Oh no, I don't-"

"Don't mind her," Dawn interrupted. "She's not good with people getting all compliment-y on her. But you've got your own set of skills, a bit different from ours. Maybe we should get together and compare notes about how they're developing, sometime?"

Tammy's smile widened. "I'd like that."

~*~*~

"So, thanks for not trying to kill me or my friends," Faith said with a grin towards Wicked and Truth.

The two vampires laughed and Truth gave her a sly wink. "Of course. And now that those chains are no longer needed, perhaps you would like to accompany us somewhere more private before dawn breaks?"

Faith balked at their intense looks. She had been joking, after all!

"Uh, well.," she floundered uncertainly. Dammit!. She really hated being in a relationship sometimes. Then Robin's face flashed through her mind. Dammit. She loved him, no question about it, she now realized. And as pretty as these two undead heartthrobs were…

"I'm sorry. I actually have a boyfriend," she admitted with a wince.

The brothers exchanged a look and sighed in unison. "I feared she was too good to be true, brother."

"How true, Truth. Ah well, it is better to have lusted, then to have never lusted at all."

Faith laughed at his absurd comment. "So, friends?" She stuck her hand out to shake theirs.

Wicked raised his brow in clear disdain. "Dear Faith, vampires do not shake hands." She started to retrieve her hand but he caught it in a flash. "But we would be happy to continue our friendship." He bent down and kissed her hand.

Truth seized her hand next and brushed his lips against it, also. "And hopefully that friendship will include more sparring? It has been too long since we have been able to measure ourselves against anyone as skilled as you."

Faith eyed the two vampires before her and grinned. "Sounds good to me."

"Wonderful. And perhaps you could spar in one of those little gym shorts and sports bra outfits you mortals tend to favor?" cracked Wicked.

She bit back a laugh and gave a mock-glare. "Maybe. As long as Truth, here, doesn't try to wear any puffy shirts."

~*~*~  
With the sunrise approaching, soon everyone was packing up and heading back to the cars, until only Buffy and Spike were as left. He was sitting in the shadows on the staircase and eyed her approach.

"Leaving so soon, Slayer?" he asked.

Buffy bit her lip. She was bruised, covered with splatters of blood, and damn tired. Although she normally lived to talk, it was just not in the cards right now.

"It's late," she noted. "Well, I guess it's technically early, now. Any-hoo, I'm exhausted, Spike."

She started to walk past him but he stood up to block her exit.

"Dammit, Spike," she muttered in frustration. "I'm not Talk-y Girl right now."

"It'll just take a moment."

Her eyes found their way back to his own and her anger subsided somewhat. His eyes were so loving that she found she couldn't stay annoyed. It bothered her, in a way, that he was back, because she feared what havoc he could wreak on her personal life. A part of her, albeit a small part, still loved him.

Spike took a deep breath- which she always found amusing since vampires didn't need to breath.

"Thank you, Buffy, for coming for me. I used to dream that you would, but I never expected it." His hands came up to tenderly grasp her shoulders.

"Well, you don't have to worry about dreaming about me anymore, because now you're free," she said lightly, feeling suddenly awkward, but pleased at the same time to feel his touch.

He gave her a smoldering look. "I will never stop dreaming about you."

She licked her lips, which suddenly felt dry. "Spike, I-"

He shook his head. "Don't worry about it, Slayer. There's no need for any sort of announcements tonight. I just wanted to thank you for- er- saving me." He frowned. "That *really* doesn't roll off the tongue."

"What? You don't like the fact that you were rescued by a girl?" she teased, the atmosphere suddenly feeling lighter.

"Oh, sod off, Slayer. I did my own bit of killing, thank you very much," he stated defensively.

Buffy grinned suddenly as a thought struck her. "Uh-huh. Guess since I rescued you, I'm your knight in shining armor, huh, Spike? and So that makes you the princess, doesn't it?." S she asked with a wide smile as she eased past his sputtering form and began ascending the stairs.

"What? No, no, I'm not." Spike declared indignantly. He began following her up the stairs. "You take that back! That makes me sound like one of those poofy vampires that you took out tonight."

"I don't know, Spike. I bet you would look nice in a dress," Buffy joked.

"Well, yeah," he called up, "I look bloody brilliant in just about anything, you know!"

"Oh, you are so arrogant." Buffy rolled her eyes and headed to the car.

Some things never change.

And for some reason, she found that extremely reassuring.

* * *

A/N:

Zis is almost ze end… The next chapter is the epilogue where we discover what happened to Asher and Jason, what's up with Anita, and what the Scoobies are doing now…

Clue: One of the Scoobies is dating someone ;)

1. Damian (staked)-- Faith  
2. Valentina (ratted and squashed) -- Dawn  
3. Nathaniel's creepy hair -- Spike  
4. London (Decapitated) -- Buffy  
5. Caleb (Eviscerated) -- Buffy  
6. Elizabeth (Killed by the North Wind God through flaying) - Dawn  
7. Narcissus (Castrated, Stabbed in the heart) -- Andrew  
8. Crispin (Eviscerated) -- Xander  
9. Domino (Eviscerated)-- Sylvie  
10. Requiem (Eyeballs ripped out, tongue ripped out, decapitated) -- Faith  
11. Byron (Magically burned) -- Spike  
12. Micah (Throat ripped out and munched on) -- Richard  
13. Haven (Stabbed in the throat)-- Xander, with an assist by Andrew

14. Jean-Claude (Heart stabbed, decapitated)-- Buffy

Munter: an ugly woman (British slang) _(.?term=munter)_


	16. Epilogue

**Chapter 16: Epilogue**

**A/N:**

*Sigh* It is finished. I'm a bit sad that the fun is over, but also quite happy with how things have turned out. What started out as a simple midnight writing revenge project after being frustrated by yet another Anita Blake book has turned into something I didn't quite expect.

Which is all thanks to you, the readers, for your support and suggestions. I had no idea that so many people felt as I did and once I realized that I really wanted to write this for all the disgruntled fans out there. I hope I did you proud.

For everyone that has reviewed—Thank you so much. The response was far greater than I expected and I am humbled by your interest.

As always, Greywizard is the ninja of all betas and I thank him for all his help.

* * *

**SOMEWHERE IN LOUISIANA**

**3 MONTHS LATER:**

As he felt his daylight death slowly seep away from his body, Asher took a deep breath and raised his coffin door. Gone was the utter wealth and comfort he had previously shared with Jean-Claude, and now he had to resort to sleeping in the basement of an old manor whose residents had conveniently realized they were overdue for a lengthy vacation. '

_Of course_,' he thought with a small smirk of satisfaction at his clearly evident superiority, '_their realization came as a result of me bending their impressionable minds_.'

Considering everything else that had seemed to go wrong with his life, Asher was thankful that their escape had gone well enough.

He laughed scornfully at his idle thoughts as the bitterness rose within him. '_Oh yes, I have much to be thankful for_,' he thought with an edge of sarcasm.

It seemed that everything he loved in this world had been taken away at one point or another. First, Juliana at the hands of a vengeful mob, so long ago, and now Jean-Claude, at the hands of that bitch, Buffy Summers.

Asher sighed as his despair seemed to manifest itself and cloak him in the depressive darkness. A part of him wished to meet the sun and end his apparently cursed existence, but he had a promise to keep to one of the his few surviving loved ones.

His mind flashed back to that devastating battle – had it really been only three months ago?

He still remembered the weighty taste in his mind of Anita's sorrow at losing her powers as she sobbed across the room from him. How badly he had wanted to tear that Slayer apart and comfort Anita! A part of his spirit had died a little at seeing her so broken- so different from the woman he knew she was.

As the two slayers and that ungrateful, backstabbing fiend, Spike, had audaciously argued who would be Jean-Claude's executioner, Asher's anger had flared in hatred. He desperately tried to break out of his bonds, but Jason had held him back.

And then, just as Asher was about to use his teeth to rip off Jason's hand, he had heard a voice in his head.

'_Asher_,' Jean-Claude's velvety smooth voice had whispered in his mind. '_Do not act foolishly.'_

'_Should I instead watch your execution as I sit and do nothing?_' he had howled mentally in agonized response.

'_The odds are not in our favor, my love. I accept that there is nothing we can do to save me._'

Asher had wanted to interrupt, but Jean-Claude had hushed him. '_Listen to me, there is not much time_,' came his urgent voice, so strongly it felt that he was speaking right into Asher's ear. '_We must be pragmatic. There is a way for you to escape. Jason will release your bonds and you will use him as a hostage. Together, you two may leave_.'

'_I will never leave you!_' Asher mentally had spat. '_I am no coward!'_

An uncomfortable pause set in at Asher's implication- of the day so long ago when Juliana was murdered and Asher was tortured.

'_Will you ever truly forgive me_?' Jean-Claude had sighed, his regret clearly filling his 'voice.' '_You two must leave so that Anita may be rescued someday. Who knows what the human justice system will do to her. She will need you both.'_

Asher had felt Jason loosening his chains. '_For you, for your 'Ma Petite'_,' he had reluctantly agreed in a defeated tone.

'_For 'our' Petite,_' Jean-Claude had corrected him before the Slayer spoke to him.

Before he was murdered without mercy.

Asher twitched at the sharp memory as he began ascending the basement stairs. "Jason?' he called.

"Asher! Come here! You've got to watch this!"

Picking up his pace, Asher arrived in the living room where Jason was wearing blood-red spandex workout pants while lounging on the couch watching the television.

"What is it?" he asked.

"CNN is reporting on Anita after this commercial break," Jason answered.

Asher settled into the couch and began watching with interest. For practical reasons, he and Jason had made the decision to lay low since the battle. Unfortunately, that meant that Anita was still in the clutches of the federal authorities.

The final commercial ended and a fair-skinned man with salt and pepper hair and a bright artificial smile appeared on screen. He was standing on the steps of a courthouse where dozens of other reporters were milling about.

"Reporting to you, live, from St. Louis Federal Courthouse, this is Anderson Blitzer. Just moments ago, the jury for the Anita Blake trial came back from their recess. For those of you viewers who have literally been without any access to media for the last three months, Anita Blake is the former Federal Marshall and Vampire Executioner who has been charged on a number of accounts, including: murder, conspiracy to commit murder, interference in police investigations, perjury, and more."

Now plastering a somber look on his face, the reporter continued. "This case has been pivotal in the new evidence that the Regional Preternatural Investigative Team here in St. Louis, along with the FBI, have uncovered about the dark truth about vampires. While the vast majority of the country's 'living impaired' citizens are still considered to be no threat to the general populace, many others have been charged, convicted and quickly executed by the Vampire Slayers and Federal Marshalls for murder, attempted murder, or conspiracy with the Vampire Council in Europe."

The reporter took a breath and held his fingers to his ear piece. "Excuse me, folks." His gray eyes caught the camera again. "The jury has returned to chambers and Judge Newberry has called for the verdict.

"Anita Blake has been found guilty on all accounts and will be sentenced to the Federal Prison here in St. Louis for the remainder of her life!" the network shill announced, a look of surprise quickly flashing across his face before being replaced by his usual bland expression.

Asher snarled with rage and hurled the plasma screen against the wall.

**~*~*~*~*~**

**WASHINGTON, D.C.**

**THAT SAME DAY :**

Buffy self-consciously smoothed down her charcoal pencil skirt as she mustered up her courage behind the curtain in the White House Press Room.

Past the edge of the curtain, she could hear the dozens of reporters who were already milling into the room, chattering wildly. Next to her stood Giles, who gave her a comforting pat on the shoulder- He knew how much she disliked public speaking -- ever since Snyder's pure evilness at the Talent Show her sophomore year.

"Giles," she whined, "are you sure I have to be Speech Girl? You're *_so_* much more proper and British."

He sighed and began cleaning his glasses- undoubtedly as a result of having gone through this conversation several times previously.

"Buffy, as much as I dislike the change, you no longer have a secret identity."

The so-called 'Queen of Slayers' jutted out her lip in an attempt to look pitiful.

"I know!" she nodded. "I'll never be allowed back in the Secret Identity Heroes Club with Superman or Batman, anymore. There goes my membership card and my vacation to the annual Tahiti Conference."

Giles refrained the urge to roll his eyes. After all, they were surrounded by a dozen White House staffers, including an attractive older woman who served as the Press Secretary, and he didn't need to appear to be exasperated to the viewing public should he be caught in an unexpected candid shot.

"Yes, what a shame," he stated dryly as he rubbed his already spotless lenses. "Regardless, Buffy, your name, picture, and identity as the leader of the Vampire Slayers has been circulated for several years on flyers in the post office as a terrorist. Thus, with the President's announcement today, you must publicly accept the government's apologies and express the Council's gratitude for recognizing and correcting the fraud perpetuated by the Vampire Council."

"I know." Then she looked at him sharply. "How's my hair?"

Giles gave in to rolling his eyes. "The same as it was the last ten times you asked me."

Her retort was silenced by a staffer ushering them to the edge of the stage, where they waited for the President to begin speaking.

Buffy made sure to plaster a serious expression on her face as he began talking - Giles had, repeatedly, strongly emphasized that she not look like she was daydreaming or searching out all the 'hotties' in the room.

"Good evening, ladies and gentlemen of the press. I have spoken on this topic several times and as events have progressed, I wanted to speak to the American people on these developments," the President began.

"Three months ago, through superior investigative work by the St. Louis Regional Preternatural Investigative Team and the FBI, we learned that a conspiracy had been implemented against Humankind by the Vampire Council in Europe - the lawmaking body for all vampires. This conspiracy sought to gain control of world governments, including our own, in order to ensure vampiric superiority and control of this planet. Many of our preconceived notions have been shattered since then. We discovered that many vampires had used their mind control ability to influence lawmakers and suggest changes in laws, in order to legalize their status, they all fervently decried that they were law-abiding citizens with unfortunate health issues.

"While we acknowledge that some of the vampire population do fit into that category, there are a great many who do not. Recently, I have signed laws to regulate their presence in our country- including issuing mandated government ID and stricter regulations on property and possessions.

"After Executive Order 34986, where I declared that the Slayer Army and its parent group, the Watcher's Council, were extracted from the Terrorist List, we have seen an increase in safety around our country. These brave young women have suffered unduly at our hands, and the Vampire Council, and we thank them for their patriotic service. Today, I am proud to introduce Buffy Summers, Commander In-Chief of the Slayer Army."

The President beamed and ushered Buffy forward.

Clutching her note cards tightly, she shook his hand and stood at the podium as dozens of flashbulbs went off. She took a deep breath and began explaining her role and that of the Slayer Army in the coming days.

After the speech (which went much better than the Talent Show, thankfully), Buffy and Giles headed to a cocktail hour where the President introduced her to a great many people from the various departments that she would most likely eventually be dealing with, now that the Watcher's Council was an officially recognized entity in America.

It wasn't a bad time, all things considering. She was still freaked that her life was the complete opposite of Sunnydale -- people knew that the bad things really existed and they knew she killed them. But she most definitely preferred lounging about, sipping drinks at the request of the President, than illegally traveling under dorky aliases and hiding from the FBI.

As she stood next the wall, pondering these thoughts, a voice broke into her musings.

"Ms. Summers, is it?"

Buffy glanced up and found her lips curling into a smile at seeing two men who looked a lot closer to her age instead of all the fuddy-duddies that worked here. The one closest to her was about six-foot tall and was definitely someone that she knew Faith would refer to as 'caramel-y goodness'. He looked Native America and had waist-length hair tied back into a braid. His features were incredibly attractive and his well-tailored suit hinted at some serious muscle possibilities.

His friend that had spoken to her was also attractive, although quite the opposite in appearance. He was shorter, maybe about 5'8, blond, blue-eyed, with a brilliant smile that made her forget her name for a moment. He had a southern accent, although Buffy couldn't quite place it.

"Yes, it is. But you can just call me Buffy. And you two are?" Buffy made sure to keep her speech as un-Buffy-fied (as the Scoobies referred to it) as possible, as per yet another of Giles' rules.

The blond extended his hand. "Well, I'm Ted Forrester, Federal Marshal, and this is-"

"Bernardo Spotted-Horse, Federal Marshall" the other man interrupted with a cheeky smile as he grabbed her hand and kissed it. "It is a pleasure to meet you, Buffy."

"Likewise," she said with a grin as butterflies swarmed in her stomach. Jeez, she was spending way too much time with only women around, to get all excited about a kiss on the hand!

"Buffy, we wanted to introduce ourselves because we've been assigned to help your organization situate itself in St. Louis as everything begins changing," Edward informed her.

"Oh." Buffy was surprised to hear this -- it was news to her. Giles probably had probably forgotten to mention it to her with all the other stuff on his mind, she reflected.

Edward seemed to sense her discomfort. "Not to step on anyone's toes, I assure you. Just to make sure your organization has federal support as you carry out your duties. Plus, with your girls quickly taking over all the good vampire kills, you're starting to put us out of business," he joked with a wink.

"Oh, well… Okay, then," Buffy said slowly with a shrug.

She was hesitant and would definitely be talking to Giles. Something was twigging her Slayer senses about these two guys.

But in the meantime… What could it hurt to talk to a couple of hotties for a bit?

**~*~*~*~*~**

**ST. LOUIS **

**SEVERAL DAYS LATER:**

Buffy grunted as she tried to open her front door while carrying several bags of luggage. Suuuuure- she could set them down, open the door, and then pick them up again, but that was an extra step that she didn't feel like taking -- plus she was stubborn and hella tired from her plane ride.

She smiled with satisfaction as she managed to jiggle the key and push the door open. Dropping all of her bags in the foyer of the cozy two-story home that she was currently sharing with Xander, Willow, and Dawn, she headed straight for the kitchen, hoping that Willow had had a chance to pick something up.

Buffy squeaked and quickly shut her eyes.

Yup, Willow had definitely picked something up- or rather a someone.

Willow heard a noise and immediately looked towards the doorway. "Oh! Buffy!" She pulled her hands away from her partner's curves and held them behind her back -- like a little kid caught stealing from the cookie jar. "Sorry! Just, um, I thought you were gone until tomorrow and since it's the day of the full moon, Xander's with his hyena people and I thought I was home alone, so I invited Sylvie over for dinner and then we had dinner, and now…" Willow trailed off with a sheepish shrug.

Sylvie pulled on her conservative teal polo shirt. "And then we decided to have some dessert," she added with a laugh. "And Buffy, you can open your eyes now."

"Oh. Okay. Good." Buffy's eyes blinked open and she smiled at Willow's red face and Sylvie's grin.

"Don't worry," she waved off as she proceeded to the freezer. "I just need to get some chocolate-y goodness, the frozen version with little peanut butter cups. And then I'll be out of your way."

"It's okay; I guess I should be getting going, anyway. Richard wanted to meet with me before we head to the Lupinar tonight," Sylvie said as she gave Willow a quick kiss and headed for the door. "See you later!"

"Bye," Willow said with a soft smile.

"Yes, see you later!" Buffy called with a salacious grin and she turned to Willow. "Sooooo?"

Willow blushed. "So, nothing. We're just hanging out."

"Which you do frequently," Buffy interjected.

"So how was your trip?"

Buffy rolled her eyes. "I see through you, what with the sudden changing of the topic and everything, missy. But fine. I'll leave it be, for now," she said with a smile.

"It was good, mostly," she noted as she considered everything she and Giles had been doing. "I didn't run off stage or drool on myself at the Press Conference, even though I had seriously been dreading it."

"Good!" Willow said encouragingly. "Plus, bright side -- you were a much better choice than the other senior slayer."

Buffy snorted with laughter as she imagined Faith leading an official government press conference. Very true. It's a good thing she's coordinating the hunting efforts in Cleveland while we center the new base of operations here."

She continued. "Yup, so we are now officially all good, just like Dolph promised.

"Although," she frowned, "we've got some Federal Marshalls assigned to us. Apparently, to help keep our organization connected to the government, so we don't have to deal with any 'inter-departmental troubles,' but personally, I'm kinda sketchy on them."

"Why?" Willow prodded.

She shrugged. "Well, I met two of them, -- definitely salty-goodness, by the way -- and I just got a vibe, like maybe they had a secret agenda."

"Probably they'll be used to keep tabs on us. I mean, I didn't really think the government would be like 'Boom! Okay, you're not terrorists anymore even though you have freaky strong special powers,' and then not play Big Brother on us," Willow rationalized.

Buffy bit her lip. "Yeah. That was probably it."

**~*~*~*~*~**

Buffy was back in the basement of the Circus of the Damned.

The room looked just as it had that night three months ago, blood-splattered, she realized as she glanced around. She shivered, feeling uneasy in the place, alone in the dim light.

"Man, did you kids do a number on this place," rang out a man's voice. "I heard it took the cleaning crews a week to completely get the blood out of the stone."

Buffy whirled and saw a familiar figure dressed in a trench coat and hat.

"Whistler," she growled irritably. "What the hell are you doing here? Am I dreaming? God, can't your Powers That Be Really *_Really_* Annoying leave me alone?"

He shrugged. "Hey kid, don't kill the messenger."

"Okay. No kill, but can I hurt you a lot?"

"Hey now, I have good news, today," the balance demon said as he held up his hands in front of him defensively. He had a very good idea of just how much damage the woman in front of him could do when she got annoyed, and he desperately wanted to stay on her good side.

Buffy glared.

"Okay, maybe it depends on your perspective," he admitted with a shrug. "Some of it you're definitely not going to like, but I may have some helpful info for ya."

Pursing her lips, she studied him for a moment. "Your messages don't really leave me with the warm fuzzies plus, hey, I'm very comfortable with life right now and I don't need any Powers craziness."

Whistler frowned, frustrated by her attitude. "You think you won, didn't you?" he said with a frown that Buffy decided she really didn't like. "'Cause now the vampires are on the run, and you and your girls aren't being hunted by the government."

"Hello? Been having to deal with all the political bullshit for the last five years. So yeah, epic win here."

Whistler shook his head. "But you can't find the Vampire Council members or any of the other big kahunas, can ya?"

Buffy shifted, suddenly uncomfortable. "Well, no, not yet."

"Things are gonna go down, Slayer. The Vampire Council members haven't lived for so long to be taken down so easily. They'll be gunning for ya, as will some other nasties."

"What? Who are the others?" she asked urgently.

"Can't talk about that right now," he said with a wave of his hand to silence her. "But you gotta remember that the scales aren't always going to weigh in your favor. What was done will be undone."

"Less cyptic-y, please?" she pleaded with the balance demon.

"What I *_can_* tell ya that one of your solutions lies with you, the Hyena Oba, and the Master of St. Louis, if you wanna beat this thing."

"Huh with the what-now?" she sputtered. "What's coming? What's gonna get undone? And what do Xander and Spike have to do with it?"

"You're a bright kid," he said with a grin. "Scary, but bright. You'll figure it out. Good luck, kid."

He vanished and Buffy shot up straight in her bed, her heart pounding from her dream.

She looked up to her ceiling and scowled.

"Look, I know I'm Chosen and all, but couldn't you have chosen me to marry Brad Pitt, adopt cute babies, and live happily ever after?" she called out in a frustrated voice.

* * *

**A/N:**

*~*~*~THANK YOU FOR READING~*~*~*

After some encouragement and in the process of writing this chapter, I realized that there's a lot of story left in this universe. I have already started working on writing a sequel, (although with the storylines I've constructed there will likely be a total of 2 more fics to be written), that will address the plans Asher and Jason have to rescue Anita and get revenge, among other things. (First chapter of the new story will be posted this week so keep a look-out!)

I would love your input, because I live to entertain and want to incorporate the desires of the readers as much as possible.

Hence, if you have a moment please let me know:

1. WHAT YOU THINK OF THIS STORY NOW THAT IT'S FINISHED! :D (okay, I'm super excited to have finished my first multi-chapter story, yay!)

2. Anything you'd like to see happen in the sequel (pairings, what happens to characters, deaths, etc)

-----

Regarding votes (that I did not mention in the last chapter):

Asher got SIX 'Kill' votes and (drumroll, please!): 18 'Redeem' Votes! I was ambivalent on Asher but clearly you all wanted him to live, so he got to live :)

Nathaniel got THREE 'Kill' votes and (drum roll please!): 7 'Redeem' Votes! He lost all of his hair but at least he got to stay alive ;)

Jason got ONE 'Kill' vote and (drum roll please!): 3 'Redeem' Votes! No one seemed to have anything against Jason, so yay for him, he gets to live.


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